Minecraft Fanfiction: Zyeke's Story
by Zyeke
Summary: About a teenager who gets put into one of his favorite games. It seems as though he is not alone though. Read more to find out! Sorry about the bad summary. Rated M for Language, Violence, and some other things I probably haven't mentioned. Enjoy! Leave a review and/or favorite if you like it. Contains Mob Talker
1. Waking up

**Hello. I hope you all enjoy the series I will be writing. I will try to update this at least once a week. I don't own Minecraft. It is property of Mojang.**

Fanfiction: Minecraft

Chapter 1

I woke up and my head was throbbing. I raised a hand to my head. There was no welt or bruise. I opened my eyes. To my surprise, I was no longer no longer in my bedroom! I was looking up at a cloudless blue sky. Instantly, I took in the rest of my surroundings. I could hardly believe my eyes! Everything was made of blocks! "No, nuh uh. I am not in one of my favorite video games." But it was true.

All around me, everything was in blocks. Minecraft's standard oak trees surrounded me, the grass felt real, but it too was a block. If you looked very closely, you could see the outlines, but otherwise it was hardly noticeable. Another weird thing was that there was wind. The square leaves of the trees were waving ever so slightly and I could feel a light ripple in my clothes and cool air on my face. I sat up and was greeted with more throbbing from my head. After a few more seconds, I got to my feet.

My name is Zyeke Daniels. I wasn't that much different from your ordinary teenager. I am white. I have dark brown hair, cut short. I had an athletic figure (not that I'd brag about it. I take Tae Kwon Do, so I always take time in my day to exercise and practice). I was wearing my favorite dark blue Levi jeans, A black t-shirt, and my black sneakers. I was puzzled because I hadn't fallen asleep with these on, although I wasn't complaining. I don't think I would have liked to have arrived here in my boxers. I also had my glasses with a scratch on the right lens. Lying on the grass next to me was my favorite hat too. It was plain black with the word "Red" written in red across the front.

I felt something buzz in my pocket. I reached inside and pulled out my MP3 player with headphones plugged in the audio jack. I must have turned it on somehow. I checked all my pockets and pulled out a lot of things I treasured. My necklace I got from last Christmas, my watch, and a knife I had made from an old file. I questioned how I had come here with these items and, more importantly, how I got here in the first place, but I drew a blank. I just remembered going to sleep late at night, around midnight actually, but nothing particularly weird happened. Not like what I read about in other fanfictions at all.

I looked up at the sky. The sun wasn't like the cube sun that usually accompanied the default texture of minecraft. It actually looked more like the John Smith texture pack sun. So did the rest of the forest. The sun was in the middle of the sky and I quickly decided I either had to find shelter or build one. I walked up to a tree and readied my fist. I pulled it back and hit the tree with as much force as I could muster. I let out a small grunt as pain seeped through my hand. A crack did not appear like in the game. All that happened was that my knuckles turned red and my hand started throbbing. Well, it looks like that options exhausted. The only other thing I could think of was to find a village I could spend the night at. With a sigh, I picked a direction and started walking.

It was after 5 minutes or so that I realized, to my dismay, that the days here still ran on minecraft time. Crap! It was at this point I started to jog in my set direction. I hoped I would find a village before nightfall. After some time, the sun had completed it's journey down and the moon started to peak it's head through the trees. I was still jogging, but now my every sense was on alert. As a player, I knew the dangers that happened at night and I did not want to find out if I would respawn if I died.

It wasn't long until I heard a _"Slurp, Slurp" _of a spider. I glanced behind me to see a gruesome sight. Now, I don't exactly have a fear of spiders. I don't like them, but I don't fear them. This spider _made_ me fear spiders! It was about half the size of a small car! Eight long, hairy legs, striped brown and black. It's black sac hung loosely behind it's main body, but what really scared me was it's glaring red eyes and glistening white fangs. My fight or flight responses quickly made my decision for me and I took off sprinting. The spider let out an ear splitting screech and charged after me, it's eight legs making the ground thump underneath it.

An arrow whizzed past my face. I honestly thought that kind of thing only happened in movies or stories, but I was happy that it missed. I turned my head to see a skeleton with it's lifeless eye sockets and bony fingers loading another arrow into it's bow. I ran faster.

Ahead I saw the trees abruptly end into a plains biome. My spirits rose when I saw light coming from the edge of the hill. The thumping from the spider was getting closer even though I was running as fast as I could. It was going to take a miracle for me to get to the village. I was nearing the hill when all of a sudden, I hear a "_sssssss…"_ There was a creeper right in between me and the edge of the hill. And I was running straight towards it! Suddenly, I got the craziest idea. If it worked, I probably wouldn't die. If it didn't work, then I was _definitely_ going to die. It was pretty obvious which choice I chose.

I went into a full out sprint towards the creeper. My whole plan revolved only around being faster than the creeper. Too slow and you could kiss my but goodbye. The creeper looked straight at me with it's uncaring black eyes and it's merciless frown. It started to bloat a little as I come within a few steps of it. The spider was almost on my heels. Perfect! I shoved the bloated creeper behind me and jumped from the edge of the cliff. I didn't quite make it in time.

With a final "_SSSSSSS…",_ the creeper exploded. I felt the force of the explosion behind me. My back and neck screamed from the sudden heat and impact. Fortunately, the force also pushed me forward. I flew off the hill, and as I flew, I heard the satisfying sound of the minecraft sound effect for the death of a spider. The ground came fast, but I took most of the impact in a roll. I still felt a large amount of pain in my back.

Thankfully, that light I saw was, in fact, a village. I quickly hurried toward it.

I was relieved when I finally reached the village. The cobblestone/wood houses, library, blacksmith, and tended farms were the most welcoming of sights. I followed a gravel road and looked through the windows of the villager's houses to see if I could find anyone to talk to about finding a place to rest for the night. My hopes dampened when I found no one. It seems that this village was abandoned. There was no sign of any villagers. Not even the distinctive "hrmm".

On the bright side, at least there were no mobs. I could sleep here in peace. "_Woop!_" No sooner had I thought that, an enderman teleported directly in front of me. And to my dismay he was only maybe 5 inches taller than me. I looked at his eyes. He opened his jaw almost as much as his head and let out the creepiest scream I ever heard. Even when I played the game, it was enough to send shivers down my spine. In reality, it was much worse. With another "_Woop!_" He teleported away, but I knew he'd be back in less than a few seconds.

My body ached, but I held my hands up in front of my face and got into my fighting stance, slowly circling around. I heard a "_Woop!_" come from behind me and without thinking, I twisted and did a right elbow jab to it's stomach. It connected. It hurt! It was like I elbowed a brick wall! However, it seemed to affect the enderman, because he stumbled backwards. This was my only opportunity.

Clenching my teeth, I let out a volley jabs, crosses, and hooks against the enderman's chest. Each punch hurt my knuckles and a few of them had started to bleed, but I couldn't care about that right now. If I gave this thing an inch, I was done for. Even though I was sure I was hurting myself more than the enderman, he seemed to be weakening with each punch. My combinations only lasted seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime for me. I paused for the slightest of seconds to ready a final uppercut. It was a mistake.

I heard a "_Woop!_", and the enderman was no longer in front of me. Another "_Woop!_", came from my side. I went to block whatever attack the creature would hit me with, but I was too slow. His arms were too long. His black, cold, fist hit me before I had the chance to get my hand all the way up. I felt an immense pain hit my cheek. On top of that, I left the ground. Before I was able to return to it again, the enderman teleported and slammed me into the gravel. It knocked the wind out of me, along with my back, spine, and every other part of my body. I let out a yelp.

He then lifted me up with his blocky fingers and held me up off the ground. He was choking me! His grip was strong and tight. I couldn't find any air. I moved my hands to his long arm, but I couldn't break free of his hold. I was starting to get low on air! The enderman got his blocky face extremely close to mine. He opened his mouth and let out another scream, presumably out of anger, and that's when I saw it. The enderpearl! It was inside his blocky mouth. I knew what I had to do.

I let one hand free from his arm and with the other, plunged it into his mouth. My hand found the enderpearl and with the remainder of my strength, I ripped it out of his mouth. He instantly dropped me. I fell to the ground with a thud, gasping for air, thankful to have it back. I looked back towards the enderman. He was sprawling on the floor, both hands reaching up to his mouth. Black sludge, what I could only assume to be his blood, was spilling out and mixing with the gravel on the road. I had to keep myself from vomiting.

With one final enderman shreak, he fell silent. It was over. My knuckles were bleeding and in pain, my back felt like it had been ran over with a steam roller, and my neck felt raw, but I had survived! The enderman laid on the gravel road in a pool of his own blood. His eyes were no longer purple. They were just jet black now. I almost spat at his corpse, but I stopped myself. He may have been a mob, but he wasn't worth the disrespect. I opened my right hand and looked at the enderpearl that I had taken form him.

It was a light shade of some kind of greenish-black color. Not only that, but it was also translucent. I could see some of what was inside it! A small fog with purple particles swirled around inside. I was mystified. It was beautiful. I smiled and slipped it into my pocket. My mind told my body it need rest and I wasn't about to argue. I was exhausted. I walked up to the nearest house and opened the door.

There wasn't much inside. A crafting bench, a furnace, and a small chest were huddled into a corner. The floor was made from regular oak plants and there was one glass block that served as a window to see outside. All I cared about was the bed in the corner. With a grunt, I lowered my body down onto the bed and got under the covers. It didn't take long for my mind to shut down and for darkness to wash over my eyes.

**Sorry that the first chapter was kinda short. I'll try and make it longer the next time. Leave a review if you like it so far. I like hearing people's thoughts and/or ideas.**


	2. Mob Princesses?

Fanfiction

Chapter 2

I woke up to the sound of footsteps. I bolted upright and was greeted with pain from my back. I grunted and looked down at my bed sheets. When I looked up again, I was greeted with a pair of glowing white eyes. Herobrine was at the foot of my bed. F***! He didn't look blocky as most of the players in minecraft described him. He looked…human-like. He had short brown hair, a blue shirt, and purple-ish blue pants.

I kept calm, not letting the fear I had inside me show on my face.

"You… Your…" I couldn't even form a proper sentence. How's that for keeping your fear in check?

He smiled. It was a devilish smile. "Yes, I am Herobrine. And you…you are the one I have decided to bring into this world." His voice sent shivers down my spine. But now, my fear was replaced with anger. He was the one who brought me here! Separated me from my family and friends who are probably worried sick about me!

"You Bast***!" I quickly lunged at him from the bed. I never came close. I was flung back to the wall before I came withtin a meter of him. I couldn't move! I tried moving any part of my body, but to no avail. Some sort of force held me there and I was powerless against it. Da** it! Herobrine chuckled at my struggle.

"You seem to have some spirit." He said as he laughed. His laugh was cruel and cold. "I like that. Maybe you'll last longer than the others I sent here."

Others! What did he mean others? Was I not the first one? How many people were in this same predicament I am now? How many lives had this man destroyed?

"Now I'm going to make this very simple," he went on, "You want to see your family again right? If that is true, then I have a proposition for you. And if you act civilly, I might just be able to let you down."

I nodded and he waved his hand. Whatever force that was holding me in place was gone and I dropped to the floor. I had half a mind to rush him again, but I already knew that it wouldn't do any good. Unfortunately, my only option was that I had to listen to what he had to offer me. I was already sure that none of it was going to be good for me.

"Good. Now, as I was saying. I brought you here for a specific purpose. Entertainment, more than anything, you see. There will be an event happening the day after tomorrow and if you want to see your precious family again, you're going to have to participate. " He held out his hand and a weird white flame arose and disappeared. In his hand, was a sheet of paper. He threw it over to me.

I caught it in mid-flight. It was a poster.

_25__th__ Annual Monster Games!_

_All participants welcome! Must have a ticket to gain entry. Go to coordinates, x=2000, Z=2000 and present your ticket to the guard. We hope to see you there!_

On the back of the poster was an image of all the classic mobs looking like they were ready for battle. A skeleton had its bow drawn, a spider was shooting webbing at a zombie, and a creeper was on the verge of exploding. The poster embroidered in gold and had black and green shading a couple inches in before the picture of the mobs. So, this is what he brought me here for. To compete in these games. Even if I won, then what? How did I know Herobrine would be true to his word?

"I know your probably having your doubts on whether or not this will help you get back to your family, but read the bottom."

_1__st__ Prize:_

_Herobrine's Enderpearl. It has the ability to go back and forth between Earth's realm and Minecraft's. Good luck all contestants!_

There was a picture of the a darkly shaped ball, what I could only assume to be the enderpearl I needed. This all seemed really shady and from the looks of the poster, it looked like I probably didn't stand much of a chance in these games, but what other choice was there? Live out the rest of my life here, never seeing my family and friends again? Never go fishing with my grandfather, my mother, my brother? Never play guitar again with my brother?

"What is your decision? The sun will be up soon and you have a journey to make. Plus, I am getting impatient."

Man, this guy was beyond, arrogant, evil, and…bad. I sighed.

"Fine." I uttered.

He smiled and made two white flames appear in both his hands. After they dispersed, he tossed me a book with a map in it and a ticket for entry.

"Don't disappoint me." He said. Then he disappeared. Probably teleported back to wherever his home was. Good riddance. I looked at the book cover. _Minecraft Encyclopedia._ I almost threw the book away since I already knew a great portion about minecraft, but I figured I'd look through it real quick just to be sure. I flipped to the table of contents.

_Table of Contents_

_Pages 1-20: Minecraft basics._

_Pages 21-80: Crafting recipes_

_Pages 81-100: Mob information_

_Pages 100-162: Mob Princesses_

Wait, what? Mob princesses? I flipped to page 100.

_Mob princesses are the princesses of all the mobs in minecraft. Each mob has a specific princess. There is only one prince and that is Rot of the zombies. There is Cupa, princess of the creepers, Skele, Princess of the skeletons. Gelly, princess of the slimes, Sindy, princess of the spiders, Cindy, princess of the cave spiders, Rosa, princess of the Iron golems, Susie, princess of the Snow golems, Lone, princess of the wolves, Katie, princess of the Ocelots, Andr, princess of the endermen, Blazette, princess of the blazes, Charlette, princess of the ghasts, Hadien, princess of the wither skeletons, Jade, princess of the magma cubes, Mira, princess of the zombie pigmen, Melinda, princess of the witches, and Inksabella, princess of the squids. There is one other who is considered royalty, though she has no mobs to rule over. This is Herione, the feared daughter of Herobrine._

This was quite a bit digest. I had never expected there to be princes and princesses of mobs in minecraft. Something told me that mobs weren't the only thing I was going to have to worry about when competing in the games. I read on, thinking I should get to know all I could before leaving to find the coordinates that Herobrine was soo kind enough to provide.

_Cupa: Princess of the Creepers_

_Cupa is usually a happy-go-lucky type of person. She enjoys playing around a lot, even while she fights. She is able to explode parts of her body without causing her physical harm. She can instantly make any type of tnt, miniature or large. The mini-tnt aren't as powerful as a full size block, but she can produce them almost instantly, packing quite the explosive punch. She can take minutes and create a tnt block as big as a 8X8 space. She also has the ability to summom creepers at will, though they have to be in a 6 chunk radius. Her usual apparel is any sort of green clothing, usually a green hoodie with a creeper face, but this has been known to change._

_Lighting Cupa: Princess of the Charged Creepers_

_Some would say this is the alternate personality of Cupa once she has been struck by lightning. Cupa becomes much more aggressive and her abilities increase ten-fold. She produces tnt faster, summons lighting charged creepers, and can explode her whole body without dying, making anything within a 3 chunk radius vaporize._

I gulped. These princesses sounded really scary and I didn't think I wanted to read anymore about them, but I knew I had to. I had to prepare myself. Knowing your enemy is a major advantage in a fight. Even if that enemy could probably have no problem kicking you're a**.

_Skele: Princess of the Skeletons_

_Skele is a quiet person for the most part. Skele, along with all of the undead, have a certain "craving" for human flesh. Unlike zombies though, she and her kind have figured out how to use a bow, making them deadly foes. Skele likes ranged combat and uses her trusty bone bow when fighting. She is able to fire regular arrows, as well as fire, poison, and explosive. She is able to call forth skeletons from a 6 chunk radius. She Is also able to shoot almost 5 arrows every three seconds if she is concentrating hard enough, all with great precision. It has been rumored that she was able to split 5 arrows in half from hitting the bullseye on a target in exactly the same area. She is usually seen wearing a light gray vest, a small gray skirt, and gray hiking boots._

_Rot: Prince of the Zombies_

_Rot is nothing short of a bully. He is undead, except, unlike Skele, he cannot feel pain. This makes fighting him more about strategy and patience. You'll want to keep your distance when fighting him, he may not fell pain, but he can inflict it well. He is very powerful, physically. He once broke though a netherbrick wall with only his arms. He is able to summon zombies up from the ground if they are in a 6 chunk radius. His bite is poisonous to mobs and deadly to humans. He is usually seen in torn clothing, sometimes munching on flesh._

_Gelly: Princess of Slimes_

_Gelly is a very flirtatious and kind. She has incredible regenerative abilities, being that she is made of slime. She is able to squeeze through any material so long as it has some sort of flaw. She is able to summon other slime within a 6 chunk radiusand can jump up to 50 blocks high. She uses her own body to mold clothing, which is just dark green slime that covers her body._

_Jade: Princess of the Magma Cubes:_

_Like her counter-part, Jade is also flirtatious and kind. She has good regenerative abilities as well, but unlike Gelly, she has pale skin instead on slime, though she does use a reddish-black slime as clothing. She is immune to fire damage and can jump just as high as Gelly. She can summon any magma cubes from the nether from her would be cords in the nether up to a 6 chunk radius._

_Sindy: Princess of the Spiders_

_This princess is very mischevious and always tries to scare people and stir up trouble. She can shoot webbing from her fingertips that can stick to any surface. She can walk up and down walls, ceilings, ect, just as normally as the floor. She can summon any spider within a 6 chunk radius and she excels in acrobatics. She is usually seen wearing a gray and black striped shirt/sweater, pants, and red beads in her hair. _

_Cindy: Princess of Cave spiders_

_Cindy is Sindy's little sister. She is 2 years younger than Sindy. She has similar abilities to Sindy, but with a few differences. She can shoot either sticky webbing or acidic webbing that can eat through any metal or wood. She can walk up and down surfaces like her sister and has two types of poisonous bites. She can either paralyze her victim or poison him/her with her venom. She is usually seen with a green and black shirt/sweater, pants, and red beads in her hair._

_Rosa: Princess of the Iron Golems_

_Rosa is a shy, but gentle, caring, princess despite her size and power. Her skin is hard like Iron, and her entire body is a pale-gray color. She can break any block with one to three hits. Even Obsidian is no match for her. She can summon Iron golems for protection from a 6 chunk radius, or from any nearby Iron deposit. She is usually seen in a light brown top and skirt. She has a deep love for humans and will protect them at all costs._

_Susie: Princess of the Snow Golems_

_Susie is much like Rosa, except that she is not as strong. She relies mostly on her ability to change the weather to her advantage. The temperature drops when she enters a room and she can make it colder by just giving it a thought. She can make icicles rise out of the ground if there is water around and can shoot small shards out of her hands. She can summon Snow golems from water or any in a 6 chunk radius. She is usually seen wearing a snow-man like sweater._

_Andr: Princess of the Endermen:_

_Andr is a very aggressive princess. She is very powerful and doesn't mind showing it. She can teleport to anywhere she can see or has been. She can concentrate her ender energy into small, short blasts, or one big, long, blast. She can summon endermen from a 6 chunk radius from the overworld or from her would be coordinates in the end. She is usually seen in dark clothes, a purplish-black jacket/shirt and pants with black boots._

_Lone: Princess of the Wolves_

_Lone is a kind and caring princess who loves nature. She draws her power from her nine tails and has better senses than the other princesses. As she activates each tail, her physical and nature abilities increase. She can summon wolves and just about any other animal by using her nature energy. She can also concentrate her nature energy in beams as Andr can. She doesn't wear much clothing except to cover her…you know._

_Katie: Princess of Ocelots_

_Katie is a playful and almost childish princess. She is very flexable and has enhanced senses like Lone. She is able to summon other Ocelots within a 6 chunks radius and can also use nature magic like Lone, it's just not as powerful. She doesn't wear a lot of clothing like Lone, just enough to…well, you get the idea._

_Inksabella: Princess of the Squids_

_Inksabella is a shy, but nice princess once you get to know her. She is a very interesting person to fight. She can sprout tentacles from her back and uses water attacks to wash away her opponent. Don't ever be in water when fighting this princess. She can also summon quid from a 6 chunk radius. She also needs to be doused in water consistently since she is a fish. She is usually seen wearing a blue swim suit of some sort._

_Melinda: Princess of the Witches_

_Melinda is a kind, but mischievous princess when she wants to be. She uses her magic and potions to aid her in a fight. She can use her magic to make copies of herself, make blocks move, and she can use it to make a limited amount of potions instantly. She can also summon other witched within a 6 chunk radius or from a nearby village. She is usually seen in old-fashioned dresses and her witch hat. _

_Blazette: Princess of the Blazes_

_Blazette is a very aggressive princess with a "hot head". She can fly and mainly uses fire for her attacks. She can shoot a volley of small fireballs or take a few seconds to make a large one. Her blaze rods contribute to her power. When she sets on aflame, her power is doubled. When she has all 6 lit, she is at her full potential. As with all the other princesses, she can summon blazes from a 6 chunk radius in the overworld or her would be coordinates in the nether. She is usually seen in swimsuit attire with a small amount of yellow leather armor._

_Charlette: Princess of the Ghasts_

_Charlette is a shy, but caring princess. She can fly as Blazette can and can shoot fire charges. These charges can vary in size depending on how fast she wants to produce them. She can also sprout tentacles from her back to use when fighting and summon any ghasts within a 6 chunk radius in the overworld or her would be coordinates in the nether. She is usually seen in a white dress._

_Mira: Princess of the Zombie Pigmen_

_Mira is kind, friendly and doesn't like to fight unless provoked. She is undead like Rot and cannot feel pain. She can summon any sword on a whim and is immune to fire damage. She can summon zombie pigmen from the overworld or her would be coordinates in the nether. She wears swimsuit attire usually and wears a beanie to cover half her face. No one knows why._

_Hilda: Princess of the Wither Skeletons_

_Hilda is a very aggressive and cruel princess. She fights mainly based on taking other peoples abilities and turning them into a stronger and darker counterpart. She can leech on a person energy if she lays a hand on them and she can summon Wither Skeletons with a 6 chunk radius of from her would be coordinates in the nether. She is usually seen in a black vest, short, black, shorts and hiking boots._

_Heroine: Daughter of Herobrine:_

_Not much is known about Heroine or her abilities. Only the other princesses know them to an extent. If she finds you, the best thing to do is run and pray._

I closed the book with a shudder. I was going to be up against a lot more than I thought. Could I really enter this tournament and win? Did I really have a choice? I sighed. The sun was starting to come in from the window. I welcomed the sight. I needed something to lift my spirits. While I watched the sunrise, an idea hit me. Could I make materials that were not native to mincraft by using the materials I had been given?

I walked over to the chest that was in the corner of the room next to the crafting table and furnace. I was sure this village had been abandoned, so I don't know what I expected to find, but I opened the chest anyway. There was actually some decent equipment in there and I was surprised. There was a compass, some wood blocks, food, leather, and some string. It was exactly what I wanted. Instantly I set off to work.

I used the crafting table to craft the wood into sticks. Using the spider string, I wrapped and tied the two strings together to make a very crude bo staff. It was the only thing I really knew how to use, so it was better than nothing. I then took the remainder of the string and grabbed a knife from the side of the crafting bench. Carefully, I measured the string by arm length and made two cuts. I rolled the leather up to fit my crude staff and used a tiny amount of string to tie it shut tight. Using the two strings I had cut into long strips, I tied both ends to the leather. Now I had a crude sling to carry my staff in.

I put the knife back and slung the sling onto my back. I put the bread in my pocket, grabbed the book and map, slipped the ticket into my pocket and walked out the door of the small house. The sun was now fully in the sky. I knew I only had probably less than 20 minutes to get to my destination, but I don't think that Herobrine would have given me the map and coordinates and told me to get there by today if I couldn't do it. At least, that's what I hoped.

I took a deep breath, glanced at the map and started to jog north.

**Hope you all enjoyed! Don't forget to leave a review!**


	3. The Bar

Fanfiction

Chapter 3

Herobrine's map led me to a cave in a plains biome about 2,500 blocks away. That may sound like a lot, but it really only took me 2-3 minutes to jog there. There was a chest with a sigh above it that said "Take one." I opened the chest to find that there was a stick wrapped in cloth that held a piece of coal or charcoal. There was also flint and steel. I took once torch and after a couple strikes, was able to light it. I put the flint and steel back in the chest and walked inside the cavern.

It was very dark and moist inside the cave. I could only see as far as the torchlight covered. I was descending downwards. Eventually I came to fork in the path. A sign was placed on a piece of dirt right in the middle. "Mining, go left. Monster games, go right." I went right. I saw a couple of ores while I was walking, mainly Iron and coal, though I did see a few gold. I half wished I had a pick to mine them, but it seemed stupid since I didn't have a way to smelt them or carry them to a place where I could smelt them, so I just kept walking.

Just when my torch looked like it was going to burn out, I saw a light coming from around the corner. I hurried towards it, hoping that is wasn't just lava. I'd hate to be stuck in this cave in the dark near lava. Thankfully, it wasn't lava. When I turned the corner, I found a wooden door with a villager sitting on a stool made from a fence post and a wooden slab it seemed. The villager was still cube-like though. He seemed to be sleeping, as he was snoring lightly. A sword was leaning against his stool.

I nudged him. He awoke with a loud snort and looked up at me with rectangular eyes. It was weird seeing him move as her got off the stool and stretched. His cubes all moved and bent like a regular body, but at the same time whenever he moved, it looked as if his legs and arms could just fall off. They didn't. He stood up straight and grabbed his sword.

"Good evening. Or morning, whichever it happens to be. I can't tell down here." He spoke in a weird, wheezy, voice. He seemed nice enough though.

"Good morning. I'm here for the monster games. This is it right?" I asked.

"It sure is. I'm gonna need to see your ticket though." He looked me up and down. "You new here? I haven't seen you in any of the previous games." He asked.

"Yes, I am." I said as I took the ticket out of my pocket and handed it to the villager. "I arrived here last night I think, though I'm entirely sure how long I slept last. It could be longer."

He inspected the ticket carefully, examining every inch of it. Looking for any flaws probably. I was a little puzzled as to why though. I don't know who would want to voluntarily go up against mob and their princesses unless of course you happened to be one. With a brief nod, he gave the ticket back to me.

"Okay Zyeke, you may go through now. Relax a bit if you can. Before the rest of the princesses get here. And good luck to you." He wheezed.

"Thank you." I said. He opened the door and I stepped inside.

Man, compared to the redundant stone walls I was used to seeing for the past 20 minutes of so, this place looked amazing. I had stepped into some sort of restaurant/bar area. The floor was regular stone with some wool carpets arranged in patterns on the floor. Tables were made from oak fence posts and slabs like the guard's stool, except there were four arranged in a square. Oak chairs with signs acting as arm rests faced the tables. There was a bar setup made from spruce wood with stools on the outside. You could see brewing stands with water glasses at the ready to be made into potions. There was a room beside the bar that was labeled with a sign. It said "Restrooms". It sounded good to me, cause at that moment, my body decided it had to do a number one. I walked up to the wooden door and walked in.

The Restrooms weren't modern or anything, but for what minecraft has to offer, they were pretty decent. The floor was marble with stalls. I was hoping to see a urinal, but all the had were the stalls. They were pretty basic. They had a wooden door with stone slabs separating each stall. I sopened one up and stepped inside. The "toilet" was not much more than a stone slab arranged in front of three stone blocks arranged in what would be considered a triangle position in my world. A trap door was in the middle. I opened it and saw that the water flowed backwards, but I couldn't see where it went specifically. I just unzipped and went.

The sinks were very interesting and simple by minecraft standards. They had the same deal as the toilets as far as the stone block pattern. There was a button two blocks above where the middle block would be placed to make the upside down "T". I pressed it and heard something shift, probably a piston, which turned out to be holding back water. It slid right down the middle of the stone blocks to somewhere I couldn't see. Again, I didn't question and I just rinsed my hands. Something else did catch my eye. I didn't see that there was a second button next to the first one. Curiously, I pressed it. The water receded and I heard another shift. It was a good thing I had my hands back from the "sink" Because _lava _came out instead of water. At first, I was shocked, but after some though I guessed that would be for the nether mobs, seeing as water would just injure them. It still freaked me out a little. I pressed the lava button and the lava receded as well. I exited the restroom.

When I exited the restroom, I noticed that someone was now on the other side of the bar. It was a girl. She had orange hair, green eyes, and a brown robe covered her body. She hadn't noticed me let, as she was busy cleaning some empty glass bottles. I figured I'd better be polite and go over there to say hi. I walked up to the bar. She looked up at me and almost dropped the glass bottle she was holding. She fumbled with it and eventually was able to set it on the table. I thought that was kinda weird, but I brushed it off.

"Hi. My name is Zyeke. How are you?" I asked.

She looked shocked for a minute, but quickly regained her composure. "I'm fine. Thank you for asking." She hesitated a second or two. "Um, sorry if I have misunderstood, but are you here for the games?"

She probably thought that her question might have been insulting, but knowing what I was up against, I totally understood what she meant by that question.

"Yes. May I sit down?" I asked.

She nodded and I took off my sling with my staff in it and sat it down on the stool next to it. She eyed it with a mix of curiosity and wonder. I bet she had probably never seen one before, even if it was crude. Probably the same with the sling. She redirected her attention to me.

"So, you're new here?" She asked.

"Yes."

"Are you a… human?"

Her question made me chuckle a bit. "Yes, I am."

Now I had a question. "Are you a princess of some sort?"

Now she giggled at my question. "I wish, but no. I'm just a regular Human Mob."

"Human Mob?"

"Yes, there are mobs, their princesses, and then Human Mobs. They are pretty much like the princesses, except less strong. Some don't have the abilities that their mob princesses have, or, like me, don't have a princess and we are just a human version of our mobs. Although, even though the princesses look human, they really aren't. They are still monsters on the inside. Just as I am a villager on the inside, the princesses and human mobs versions are still their true mob underneath all of it."

I nodded. At this point, I just rolled with it.

"Oh," She exclaimed, "It'd probably be best if you didn't tell the other princesses that you're a human."

This puzzled me a bit. "Why?" I asked.

"Well…you see. Cube villager mobs are decently populated in minecraft. Human mobs of them are very rare, but a real live human? It's been almost unheard of and has only happened a few times in the past couple of decades. To my knowledge, the last human to come here was close to 50 years ago. He's passed on now though. Take in the fact that there are more female Human mobs in minecraft than male ones. Plus the fact that all the princesses love humans, especially the undead ones, but half of that is because they crave flesh. Getting the picture?"

She couldn't have painted it much clearer to me. I can't believe it. I was the only human to come here after 50 years, which I assume is by minecraft time, which could be maybe a couple years or less in my time, but still, that's a long time to these people. The thought that males were not as populated as the female mobs took me by surprise though. I can't imagine what the population of the world would be like on Earth if girls outnumbered guys.

"It's not like I can hide the fact that I'm human. I don't have any powers and it's probably only a matter of time that someone finds out anyway, so I don't see the point in lying about it." I decided.

She shrugged her shoulders. "It's your choice. Just be prepared." She said as she picked up another glass bottle and started to clean it with a wool cloth.

"You never told me your name." I said.

She seemed to blush at this, though I couldn't really tell because she turned away from me. "It's Alice." She said.

"Alice," I said, trying out the name, "Suits you."

She giggled. "Can I get you something to drink? That is my job after all. I can't believe I slacked off as much as I did."

I chuckled. "Don't worry about it. Water will be just fine, thanks. Actually, do you have the materials to make a couple invisibility potions?" I asked.

"I do, but nobody really ever asks for them. What are you going to do with them?"

"You insinuated that once the princesses found out I was a human, they'd be on me like that," I snapped my fingers, "Right? So I figured I could try to delay that for as long as possible by removing myself from sight. So, will you?"

I know I was kind of asking her a big favor, considering that this could be taken another way. A way I hope she didn't think of me as the kind of person to want. With a brief nod, she went to work, going into a back room from behind the bar. I heard the sound of chests opening and closing and a minute later she came back with the necessary materials. She also came back with a glass bottle filled with water.

She handed me the bottle and I thanked her. I watched and drank as she tossed the ingredients for the potions in the glass bottles with care and precision timing, all the while smoke was rising from the brewing stands. I watched as the liquid in the bottles went from the clear blue of water to the dark blue of a night vision potion, then to the clear, almost transparent, liquid of an invisibility potion. She added some redstone to extend the effects. She then set the potions down in from of me. I had finished my water and she took the bottle from me and cleaned it with another wool cloth.

"I really appreciate you helping me. Is there anything I can do for you Alice?"

"Well…" She said, blushing a little, "This is the first time I've seen another male other than Rot," She made a disgusted face, "For a long time and…I was wondering if you could…maybe…kiss me?"

I felt myself turning red. Now, I wasn't really a popular kid in high school. I hadn't gone on dates or had a girlfriend before really, so this was kind of sudden. I also never kissed a girl before. Then again, Alice was doing me a huge favor and she said that I was the only other guy she saw other than Rot, who I read was a jerk according to the book. Would it be right to say no? Would it be right to say yes? I couldn't think straight enough to figure it out.

I looked at Alice. She was waiting on my answer, but I could see her eyes pleading with me and at that point, I couldn't say no.

"Okay." I said.

I slowly vaulted over the bar table to where I was standing in front of her now. Her face was almost beet red, I'm sure mine was too. Like I said, I had never kissed a girl before and she was a little shorter than I was. I just kinda went back to what I saw people do in the movies. I brushed a hair back from her face and moved it behind her ear. I gently lifted up her chin, then, slowly, I leaned in and kissed her. At first she hesitated, unsure of what to do, and then she returned the kiss. I felt her arms move behind my back, pulling me in tighter. I moved my hand behind her neck and pulled her head in closer.

I can't even describe the explosion of emotions I experienced. It was like getting 5 adrenaline rushes all at once. And I didn't want it to stop. We must have held that one kiss for something like 30 seconds before we heard the villager outside speaking. We both pulled away fast. There was a loud noise and a girl stepped inside from the doorway.

Alice gasped and looked towards the girl that had entered. She was about my height, wearing a green hoodie that went down a little past her waist with a creeper face on it. She was wearing what looked to be hiking boots and had long orange hair the flowed past her shoulders. She looked back towards me, but I wasn't there anymore. Neither was my sling, staff, or the potions.

When I heard the villager outside talking, immediately, I moved one of the invisibility potions off the bar table and towards the floor by my feet. It broke. That was what the loud noise was. I hoped it would have the desired effect and since most of the potion splashed on my jeans and shoes, I turned invisible. Just before the door opened, I was able to vault over the bar table and sprinkle some of the liquid from the second potion bottle over my staff and the sling. Finally, I sprinkled the liquid on the potions, and it seemed to have worked because no one could see me.

It was strange, being invisible. It wasn't at all what I thought it would be like. The strange thing was that I could still see my body as clear as day, same with my staff, my sling, and the potions I was carrying. I could see them all. But since the girl who entered, who I assumed to be Cupa, hadn't noticed me at all, then the potions must be working. I expected that I wouldn't be able to see myself when I turned invisible, but this helped immensely. Now I could watch the time on my watch to see how long it was until my eight minutes were up and I'd have to drink out of the second potion bottle. I moved quickly, but quietly, to a corner in the restaurant, making sure not avoid the chairs and anything that would make any noise.

Alice was shocked and was looking for me, uncertain of what just happened. This made Cupa look at Alice with a confused face.

"You okay Alice?" She asked in a concerned, but cheery voice.

Alice finally noticed that the potions were gone from the table and so was my staff and sling. She must have put two and two together and guessed at what I had done. She quickly regained her composure and smiled at Cupa.

"Yes ma'am, I'm sorry, I just dropped a glass bottle and it startled me is all." She replied. She then picked up the glass shards carefully and pulled a lever on the wall. A trap door opened and by the light and smell, I guessed it opened to a lava pit. She threw the glass in it with a sizzle and closed the trap door. "Can I get you anything Miss Cupa?" She asked.

She giggled at this. "Alice, you don't have to use formalities with me." She said as he practically bounced onto a stool. Man, she had an abundance of energy. "And I'll have a potion of healing please. I love the taste of it!"

Alice smiled and after a minute or so, brewed a potion of healing for Cupa. She drank it in sips and they talked about a bunch of girl related things. What to do with her hair, makeup, parties, things like that. I kind of felt guilty for spying, so I pulled out my MP3 player and quietly made a selection. I drank both of the potions and I decided I would catch a nap until the other participants arrived. I got as comfortable as I could in my corner and closed my eyes. Sleep followed shortly afterwards.

**For those who saw that I posted Chapter 2 twice, my apologies. Technical difficulties XD. Here is chapter 3. Hope you enjoy it. As always, leave a favorite and a review if you liked it. Be sure to spread the word about the fanfiction! **


	4. Discovered

Fanfiction

Chapter 4

I opened my eyes and was very surprised to see that the restaurant/bar was almost filled. There were a lot of the princesses either sitting at tables talking, or at the bar talking to Alice. She seemed like she was having a good time. My invisibility potions hadn't worn off yet, so I mustn't have nodded off for very long. I looked at my watch to see I had only slept for about sixteen minutes. I still had eight left to go. My MP3 was busy playing "Thank you for the Venom" By My Chemical Romance. I looked around at the other princesses.

The princesses talking with Alice were Susie, Rosa, Melinda, and Mira. Susie was quite pale with orange hair that reached her back and was dressed in a sort of snowman sweater that extended down past her knees. She had on brown slippers and a strange kind of pumpkin hat. Rosa almost looked gray with white, short, hair and was sitting next to Susie. She had on a brownish-gray tanktop and short skirt the same color as her tanktop. Melinda was in an old fashioned dress that seemed to come out of the middle ages. It was a black dress with gold lacing on the edges and her sleeves. It covered her whole body. She wore a witch's hat on her head and her hair seemed to leak out of it. It was dark brown. Mira was sitting by Melinda and was wearing a green and white striped bikini that went over one shoulder and a similar bottom. She had pink hair that came out of a strange hat that looked like it could have been a pig. They all had their backs to me, so I couldn't see their faces.

I saw Inksabella in a blue two-piece blue bikini talking the two slime princesses, Gelly and Jade. Jade was in a two piece bikini that looked to made out of black and red slime. It did well to bring out her pale skin and red, slime-like, hair. Gelly was wearing a dark green dress made of her own slime. Her skin itself was green. She had on a hat that had a miniature slime on it. The other nether princesses were by the door, talking. I hadn't caught sight of Rot or Herione. It was probably for the best. I glanced back at my MP3 and turned it off to save the battery.

It seemed the two spider princesses were busy talking at a table on the other side of the bar. The older one was dressed in a gray striped sweater and a purple skirt. The younger one had a green striped sweater and a dark green skirt. I saw who I guessed to be Blazette talking to Andr. As indicated in the book, Blazette was dressed in a red bikini swimsuit with yellow armored boots and shin guards. There were also some sort of yellow gauntlets on her hands. Man, she was hot! And not just temperature-wise. I smacked myself in the head. _Stop being a perv man._

Andr was dressed in a black jacket with a short black skirt, black stocking, and black hiking boots. She had very pretty dark brown, maybe walnut, colored hair that went down to her knees. Her eyes were the most amazing shade of purple. Suddenly, she looked in my direction. I dropped my head and froze. Idiot! You were never supposed to look endermen in their eyes! Sh**! I carefully looked back up, but avoided looking directly at Andr's face. Her eyes were scanning the area I was in, looking for any sign that I might be there. Blazette had a very confused look on her face and it looked like she asked what was wrong. Andr briefly turned back to her. I hear what she was saying, but I saw Blazette's eyes widen. Without warning, her gauntlets caught fire. It was like someone lit a match and threw it on an oil spill. It was time to move. Now!

I got to my feet quickly and jumped to the side. Good thing too. Blazette had thrown a fireball directly at the spot I sitting at. If I had hesitated any longer, I would have been no more than a pile of ashes. Unfortunately, my jump wasn't quiet. Blazette heard the sound of my feet hitting the floor. Another fireball flew in my direction. I had to roll to dodge it. This time I bumped into a chair. By now, everyone's eyes were on us, wondering what the heck the commotion was about. Blazette send another fireball towards the chair I had bumped into. Instictively, I grabbed the chair and hurled it in the direction of the fireball. The wood exploded on contact and bits of wood and splinters assaulted anything near them.

I had already been discovered now. They didn't know who I was, but they knew someone was there. Everyone was on high alert, looking for the perpetrator. Unfortunately, that was me. Alice was the only one who understood the full extent of what was happening and she had an expression of horror frozen on her face. I made a snap decision. I had to get behind the bar and into the backroom. At least to get away from Blazette and the others. I needed time. I took a precious second to glance at my watch. I still has two minutes until the potion effects wore off. I made my decision. I had to be quick.

I leaped onto the first table I was next to. Blazette heard and fired another fireball. I hopped onto the next one. There was one major flaw in my plan. I had to be fast as well as unpredictable. Any pattern I followed would be the last mistake I did. I moved as quickly as I could, jumping on tables at random, sometimes having to move away from my intended target to avoid getting hit or making a pattern. A couple fireballs came to close for comfort a couple times, but I was getting closer. I was only a few tabletops away from the bar. Two more. One…Blazette had finally guessed my intended target. On my last jump to the bar, a fireball grazed my shoulder. I yelled out in pain and my shirt caught fire, but I still made it to behind the bar.

I gritted my teeth and slammed my good shoulder into the door that I had seen Alice go into. Once inside, I slammed it shut behind me and quickly took off my shirt. My shoulder was screaming at me and flesh blood had started to rise from the wound. The fireball had not only burned my skin, but it had taken some off. It hurt like a b***, but at least it didn't seem too bad. It wasn't fatal. How had so much gone wrong so quickly?

I heard the sound of feet hitting the floor just outside the door and I moved to the side, clutching my shoulder. Good thing too. Next thing I knew there was a loud BOOM and the door flew off its hinges and hit the opposite wall. Blazette walked in. I pulled out my staff with the hand that wasn't clutching my shoulder and faced her. Her eyes searched for any disturbance and her ears were undoubtedly trained for any small amount of noise. It turns out, she didn't need it. A second later, she locked eyes with me. She seemed a little shocked at my sudden appearance. I can imagine why.

My shirt was in ruins on the floor, burnt to nothing. Blood flowed down my chest from my wound and dampened my jeans. I smelled the sickly smell of my own blood. My singed shoulder only added to my beaten apparel. She held out her hand and a fireball formed.

"Speak now, or never speak again! Who are you?" She asked in a bitter voice.

"My name is…Zyeke." I grunted. "I came here for the games."

A look of disbelief crossed her face. "Prove it!" She said harshly.

I set my staff down slowly. Not only so as not to provoke the woman who could cook me any moment she chose, but also because my left shoulder was still in pain. It hurt to even use my right hand. Once the staff was on the floor, I slowly reached into my jean pocket and produced the ticket that signified that I was to participate in the games. She lowered her hand, much to my relief, and just walked out of the room.

I started to feel woozy. I slumped against the wall and sat down, hoping that the blurred vision would settle. Mercifully, it did. Alice soon rushed into the room. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. I smiled at her, hoping to raise her spirits and assure her that I was alright. I wasn't really sure I was. The wound must have been more serious than I previously thought. Blood was still spilling out and my lightheadedness still hadn't left me.

Alice disappeared, but returned a second later with a sort of guaze-like paper, some string, and what I assumed was a healing potion. It was a bright red potion, so I hoped I was right. She sat down beside me and dampened the guaze-paper with the healing potion.

"Lift your hand." She said.

Relunctantly, I did as she asked. She gasped. I took my first solid look at my wound. My skin was charred and black in a patch where the fireball hit. Blood still seeped out of it. Blood never really bothered me, but I honestly thought about throwing up. Quickly, she applied the guaze as gently as she could. It still stung, but I held my tongue. She then took the string, wrapping it around the guaze. She glanced at me. I knew what she was going to do and I nodded. She tightened the string as fast as she could and tied it off. I couldn't hold back a grunt as she finished her job.

"Drink this." She said.

She handed me the rest of the potion. I drained it as fast as I could.

"Thank you." I said. "That didn't go exactly as I planned did it?"

Despite the situation, she laughed. It was good because it raised my spirits too. After a minute or so, my lightheadedness dispersed and I was able to stand again. It was probably because of the potion. I was grateful to be back on my two feet again. I slowly bent down and put my staff inside my sling and threw it over my back with a grunt.

"What are you doing?" She asked. "You're not really going to through with it, are you? Not with what just happened with Blazette! She was hardly trying! Do you know what the other princesses could do to you if they wanted?" She was practically shouting now and I was sure everyone in the bar could here it. After all, there was no door to act as a sound barrier.

I grabbed her hand and squeezed it in what I hoped was a reassuring way."To get back to my world, I have to be prepared to face anything and everything. Otherwise I'll never get home. And…if I die, at least I'll rest better knowing that I tried."

With that, I walked out of the room. Every princess looked like they were staring at me. I don't know if it was because of the way I looked, what I did, or what, but before I could find out, a large booming voice filled the bar.

"Attention! All Monster Games participants! The teams have been decided! All teams and their teammates are posted near on the board that should be arriving any minute."

A seconds later there was a loud BOOM! For a second I thought Blazette had fired another fireball at me and missed, but this boom sounded different. It sounded like TNT. I looked to where the sound had come from. A row of minecarts had appeared from a hole in the wall that just appeared. There was a little smoke left from the TNT blast. Inside one of the carts was a bulletin board of sorts. It was basically a bunch of oak blocks with signs on them held up by fence posts.

Everyone walked over to the board. I was the last to join.

_Team 1: Cupa, Zyeke, Melinda, and Herione_

_Team 2: _ _Jade, Cindy, Blazette, and Hilda_

_Team 3: Lone, Gelly, Sindy, and Charlette_

_Team 4: Andr, Inksabella, Mira, Rot_

_Team 5: Skele, Rosa, Susie, and Katie_

_Good Luck to all Participants!_

"Team 1! Get in a minecart to be taken to your first tournament location!"

I guess that meant me. Cupa, Herione, and Melinda took the front three minecarts. I was more than happy enough to be in the back. I was right in front of the furnace minecart that was going to be carrying us along.

"Good Luck Team 1!" The voice said.

A second later, the minecarts started to move. They picked up speed and soon we were traveling through a well lit cave, off to our next destination.

**Sorry about the short Chapter, but I felt as if I should stop here. I promise the next one will be longer. Don't forget to review and follow if you like the story so far!**


	5. Bone Castle

Fanfiction

Chapter 5

I didn't really know what to do since I didn't know how long we were going to be riding. My shoulder had subsided to just an annoying ache. That healing potion was certainly doing a good job. I decided I better get comfortable. The minecart was big enough to fit two people, so I stretched out my legs and closed my eyes. I wasn't really sleeping so much, as just resting my eyes and thinking about everything that happened to me. I thought about my family. Man, they had to be worried sick. My mom would probably be throwing a fit. I felt kind of bad, even though it really wasn't my fault. I sighed. Thinking about this was only bringing me down. Maybe I should focus on what's in front of me.

I felt the weight of the minecart shift slightly. I opened my eyes to see a pair of white eyes staring back at me. I almost jumped out of the minecart! Herione was sitting in between the space left by my legs. She was wearing a light blue shirt and purpleish-blue pants. She had short brown hair. I looked behind her to see that Cupa and Melinda had moved, somehow, to the minecart in front of mine. They were all staring at me. Or, rather, at my chest. I was starting to turn a little red.

"Something I can do for you girls?" I asked, trying to mask my embaressment.

"Are you…human? You smell like it." Herione said. She had a strangely soft voice.

"Yes…" I replied, uncertain as to where this was going.

Heroine reached out and put a hand on my chest. I tried backing away, but my back was already at the back of the minecart. Nevertheless, I still tried backing away, hoping that by some miracle I would go straight through the minecart. It didn't work.

"Why are you touching my chest?" I asked, getting uncomfortable. Da**it, why does every princess have to be so d*** hot?

"Why? Are you getting uncomfortable?" She said as she moved her body closer to mine.

Before she was able to get any closer, I moved my hands to her shoulders to stop her. She smiled, I don't think I liked that smile.

"Aw, come on Heroine, quit torturing the poor guy." Cupa said.

Heroine glanced at Cupa then back to me. To my relief, she moved off to me. "Your right Cupa. There will be time enough for that later." She said. Then, she was gone, disappeared from right in front of me. I looked towards the front of the minecarts and found that she had teleported to the front. Now, Cupa bounced from her minecart to mine. I pulled my legs in and sat up, bare back against new cold metal. Melinda decided to fill the space I had created.

"So, Zyeke, what's your story?" Cupa said in a cheery voice.

"Uh…It's kind of a long one." I replied.

"Well, we've got probably close to a full day to wait, so let's here it." Melinda chimed in. She had a slightly less high pitched voice than Cupa.

So, I told them. I told them how I arrived in a forest biome, not exactly sure how I had gotten there. I told them about the jog through the forest, the fight with the enderman, and Herobrine's visit. When I had finished, they both were staring wide-eyed at me.

"You took on an enderman with your bare hands? That's amazing!" Cupa exclaimed. "Not to mention, trying to take on Herobrine. You've got quite some courage huh?"

I chuckled. "If by courage, you mean getting thrown against a wall and being made like you were 2 feet tall, then yeah. It was some courage. Do either of you happen to know where we're going?" I asked.

"We're headed to _Bone Castle_. That's where Skele's and her father live. He's agreed to host the games this time." Melinda said.

As she said that, we broke out of the tunnel and into a huge underground cavern. And when I say huge, I mean HUGE! This cavern had to be ten times the size of the super bowl stadium. Our track was built on a bridge made of stone brick with stalagtites and stalagmites like half the size of the empire state building. What really took my breath away was the castle.

It was a massive structure that looked like it was actually made out of bone! But that didn't make sense and when I inspected it closer, it was really netherquartz. Importing that much netherquartz from the nether to build this structure must not have been easy at all. This castle took up about half the space of the cavern. It was all walled in with a huge arch that signified the entrance into a courtyard. Towers dotted the edges and in between spots in the wall. In the center was this huge building with two small towers jutting out of it, with one large tower dwarfing the two smaller ones.

The minecarts hit a single stone brick block and we stopped at the archway. We all got out of the minecarts and I followed the princesses to the courtyard. Man, was it a beautiful sight. A stone brick pathway led to a fountain made out of quartz with three levels of water cascading down to the lowest circle. Many oak tree leave blocks were trimmed down into hedges of mobs, mostly skeletons in armor or on spiders. Grass and flowers grew freely and benches made from wooden chairs and signs were scattered around.

I only had a minute or so to take this all in before skeleton mobs came from the large building through a huge set of spruce doors re-enforced with iron. The group met us at the fountain and started to click and clack as if they were speaking. The princesses seemed to understand, because they nodded. The skeletons started to walk back to the doors and the princesses followed them. As much as I wanted to stay and enjoy the scenery some more, I increased my pace so I would catch up. I don't think it would be a good idea to get lost in a place as big as this.

The group of skeletons led us through a great hall area with columns made from striped quartz. Red carpet was overlaid to mark the way to a stairway that led to another set of large doors, but not as large as the ones at the entrance. The path split off to two other doors that probably led to a spiral staircase to the small towers or maybe to a hallway. I wasn't sure. It didn't matter because the skeletons were leading us toward the large doors. It took five skeletons pulling on each side of the double doors to make them open.

The room was HUGE! Red carpet flowed towards a throne made of solid gold and red wool fashioned into cushions. Skeletons in armor stood at the ends of the red carpet, saluting. Whether they were alive or not, I couldn't tell. They were that still. That's not what really surprised me though. It was what was on the throne that was the s=most shocking thing of all. On the throne was a skeleton. A skeleton that must have been at least 64 blocks high with a crown decorated in gold, diamonds, and emeralds. The group of skeletons led us up to the throne and bowed. The princesses did the same. I followed suit. This had to be the king of skeletons, Skele's father.

"Rise!" His voice was loud and booming. My eardrums literally popped.

"My greetings Cupa, Heroine, Melinda, and…who is this? A new contestant? State your name and mob affiliation young man!"

I gulped. "My name is Zyeke Daniels. I am not affiliated with any mob, I'm afraid. I am human."

The moment the words, I knew I shouldn't have. The group of skeletons all turned on my and pulled out bows. The knight skeleton figures I thought were statues, moved toward me. Quickly, I was surrounded by skeletons with swords and arrows pointed at me.

"Give me one reason why I should let you LIVE!" How dare you human scum enter _my_ castle!" The king boomed.

I had just about lost it. I was d*** near tired of people wanting to kill me just because I was a human. I stared straight into the king's humongous black eyes. "Alright, look here, _your highness_. I didn't ask to participate in these games. I didn't ask to come to this world in the first place! I was brought here and told I must come here, somehow win these games, and then hope that the prize will actually take me home." I pulled out my staff and readied myself in a defensive position. "And if you don't order your bone boys down, I swear you won't have any disciples in which to rule over!"

I held the king's angry gaze for what seemed like an hour, but it was probably something like a minute. Then, the king whipped back his head and…laughed. His booming laughter filled the whole room, maybe the whole castle. I was honestly a little surprised. I'd been expecting him to order his men to kill me. What happened? After a few more seconds his laughter died down to mere echoes. His men had stood down and put away their weapons.

"Oh, I haven't laughed like that in years!" He boomed. When he finally calmed down enough, he spoke again. "I know who you are Zyeke. Herobrine informed me before you arrived, but I decided to have a little fun. It was also a test of your bravery, which you have definitely proven. But, the fun is now over and I must speak what I am meant to now."

He cleared his throat. If we weren't underground, I would have assumed it was thunder.

"As you all know, you are here for the Monster Games. It has been decided that I will host it this year, so I please ask you to enjoy your stay here while you are in the games. In a minute, my skeletons will show you to your rooms that you will be staying in for the remainder of your time here. But first, I must announce that the first event in these games will be in one human day. The event is simple. It shall be a game of capture the flag between the teams. There shall be one flag and the first team to bring it back to their "base" will be declared the winner. Anything is allowed, any of your abilities or magic. That will be all. Skeletons, take Cupa, Melinda, and Heroine to their rooms, but keep Zyeke here. I would like a word in private."

Cupa and Melinda gave me encouraging gestures before they left. Heroine just left.

"You can put your weapon away Zyeke. I can promise you that none of my servants with harm you."

I had almost forgotten that I had it out. I put it away.

"What did you want to speak with me about?" I asked.

"There are three things I want to address with you. First, do you know the full extent of the dangers you face? By competing in these games, you're risking a lot. You're the first human I have seen in 50 some odd years. You're the first human the princesses have seen. You not only face dangers in the arena, but also outside. The mob princesses are especially fond of human males, as with any other female Human mob. Especially the golem and undead princesses, for the obvious reasons. I would suggest steering clear of my staff of human mobs around my castle. While I have given orders that you are not to be touched, there are some who might find the temptation of a human too great. They will be punished of course, but you will already be dead, so that wouldn't really matter to you would it?"

I nodded.

"Second, the princesses will always be physically stronger than you. If you are to win these games, you must conquer their strength with strategy. I can see you have figured this out to an extent." He gestured to my staff. "You have learned that with careful measures and the right equipment, you can create things that exist from your world. Very clever, but you must be able to do better than that if you want win. Be sure not to count out that items native to minecraft can also help you. And third, I suggest getting some sort of clothing to cover your torso. Walking around with a chest like that will definitely attract the princesses to you in a way you may not want. I've taken the liberty of having a shirt made for you."

A skeleton came from behind his throne with a dark gray shirt. He walked up and held it out to me. I took it and thanked him. Her. It? Whatever. I put it on. It felt good to have a shirt again, something I could hide my appearance in.

"Now, you have one human day to rest, think, strategize, or to do whatever you see fit so long as it does not harm my kingdom. Skeletons, take Zyeke to his room."

"Thank you, your highness." I meant it this time. I did a short bow and walked with the skeletons who the king had ordered.

We exited the throne room and took the left door next to it. It led into a hallway with a good number of rooms. We stopped in front of a wooden door with the number "16" on it. A skeleton opened the door for me. I thanked it and went inside. The room was much like a hotel room. There were carpets on the floor, two small bedside tables were next to a rather luxurious bed. There were also a couple of chests, a brewing stand on top of a furnace, an anvil, and a crafting table next to a cauldron filled with water. It kind of resembled a little kitchen area.

I dropped my sling and staff on the bed and sat down. I started thinking about the next event. Capture the flag? A child's game. Easy right? A child's game with princesses that can shoot fire, summon mobs, and teleport. Simple. I sighed. I had to think of some way to make myself better prepared. I looked at my staff. Two sticks tied together with string. It may be good for taking out mobs, but against a princess, yeah right. I think it's about time I got an upgrade. I opened the chests to see what they had to offer. To my surprise, they were very well stocked.

I found a couple diamonds, some iron and gold, and even a few blocks of obsidian. There were ingredients for crafting potions and some bottle's O enchanting for upgrading your gear. At the bottom, there were basic blocks such as wood, cobblestone, and sand. This was exactly what I wanted with a little extra. I grabbed a block of Obsidian and what ingredients I needed to make a potion of strength. Once I had brewed three potions of Strength II, I grabbed a hammer and chisel off the crafting table and walked toward the anvil. I placed the block of Obsidian on the anvil and it expanded to full size. I uncorked a strength II potion and drank it. It tasted like grape soda.

It was an incredible feeling. After finishing the potion, I felt this sort of warm energy flowing through my body. It was like my insides were filled with warm water. And I could channel it. I don't know how I knew what to do, I just did. I commanded all the energy to go to my arms and spread to my hands and fingers. I picked up the hammer and chisel and set to work. _Wham, wham, wham. _I pounded the chisel through the obsidian and was able to cut it in half. I hardly felt tired at all. I quickly worked on one half of the block, molding it into a hexagonal type of stick. Before I was about to begin on the other half, the energy left my arms and exited my body. I guess my time was up. I drank another one.

After five minutes, I had successfully made two mid-sized obsidian sticks. I wasn't able to make them into complete circles, but the hexagonal shape of the stick actually flowed better through my fingers. Now I needed something to connect them. I had an idea, but I wasn't exactly sure that it would work. I figured it was worth the shot, so I went back to the chests. I grabbed some cobble and diamond. I drank the last strength potions to shape the diamond into a small hexagonal piece about an inch wide. I had made a slot for it to connect and unconnect. I crafted the cobblestone into a smaller version of the minecraft button and placed it on the diamond piece. Now was the moment of truth. I pushed the button. There was a soft _click_ as the diamond piece came out of the slot I had made for it. I clicked the button again and it reconnected. I let out a woop. Now I had an obsidian staff that was a lot stronger than the one I had and I could disconnect it into two smaller sticks. How's that for engineering?

I figured it also wouldn't hurt to put some enchantments on it, so I grabbed the bottles of enchanting. I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do, but our minecraft avatars always threw them on the ground, so that's what I did. Once the glass bottle was smashed, large flashing green orbs hovered in the air. A second later they started coming towards me and I had to admit it was a little freaky, but I stood still. One by one they all floated towards my chest and then continued through and into my body. There was a slight moment of elation as each one passed into my body.

Now I had the experience, but I needed to find an enchantment table. I guess it was about time I explored the castle anyway. I strapped my new staff into my sling and swung it over my shoulder. I walked over to the door, opened it, and walked straight into Skele. I stumbled a bit, but she stayed pretty still. How's that for being manly?

"Sorry Skele, didn't see you there." I said, trying to regain my composure.

"No harm done." She said in a small voice.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to know where an enchanting table might be would you?" I asked.

"Sure, if you'll just follow me…"

She turned around and started walking. It was only then that I realized that she was barely wearing much. She was in a gray vest strapped around her back by a single strap. The front looked likeit was unzipped a little bit. She wore a short, gray, skirt, gray gloves, and gray hiking boots. Her bow was attatched to her back behind her quiver of arrows. I made sure to stay behind her and made sure not to look at her too much. _Why do some of the princesses dress like this?_ I wondered to myself.

We walked in silence. She led the way out the hallway and down the stairs from the throne room entrance. There had been two doors hidden next to the bottom of the staircase that I hadn't noticed before. We took the one on the right. There was a small staircase leading down to another hallway. More doors lined the walls. They were all identical, so I had no idea what could be behind any of them, but Skele seemed to know exactly where she was going. And why not? She did live here after all. We stopped at the third door on the right.

"This is where we keep our library and enchanting table."

She opened the door. I know I should be used to seeing amazingly designed things, but I was still awe struck. The library was beautiful! The ceiling arched into a dome at the top. It was decorated in iron slabs with smotth sandstone around the edges. The walls were decorated in marble and wood with glowstone placed at certain intervals to light up the place. The floor was smooth sandstone and it had glowstone placed under glass to help light the library. Bookshelves were piled up to about the point where the ceiling started its arch and were displayed in a sort of semi-circular pattern near the back of the library. Tables and chairs made from oak wood were set up near the front of the library for anyone who wanted to settle down with a book. The library, however, was devoid of people.

"Wow! Your library is beautiful!" I exclaimed.

Skele smiled at this and started to walk towards the bookshelves. I followed. She led me to a lever that was beside one of the bookshelves. She pulled it and four bookcases opened up to a room with an enchanting table and more bookshelves. These bookshelves looked different than the other ones though. The wood on the bookshelves looked aged as if it hadn't been used in a long time. The books themselves were dusty and their titles written in a language I couldn't understand. I walked up to the enchantment table and took out my new staff.

The same feeling I had when I channeled the energy of the strength potion came over me again. Without any instruction, I knew exactly what to do. I flipped through the old and torn pages of the enchanting book. Even though the writing on the page was all foreign, I knew what enchantment it was describing. I flipped through until I found what I wanted. Power V. I held my staff over the enchanting table. I felt the orbs that had entered my body flow down my arms and into my staff. The enchanting table started to glow a brilliant white and grew brighter. I had to close my eyes because the light was becoming too bright. Then, with a final flash, it was over. I opened my eyes to see that my obsidian staff had a slight purple glow around it. Then, just as quickly as I had witnessed it, it was gone. I put the staff back on my back.

I turned to walk out of the room when the bookshelves closed inches from my face. If I had stepped even an inch closer, I would have been squished! I whipped around to see that there was another lever inside the room. And Skele had flipped it down. My senses went on high alert, but she didn't look threatening. At least, not in a way that implied she meant me harm.

"Skele, what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, but I can't help it anymore." She said as she started walking toward me. "Your scent, it's so sweet. So…tempting."

I didn't like the sound of that! She was getting closer and the lever was behind her. She was only steps away, I had to think of something fast! I dove toward her. Instinctively, she moved to the side to dodge, but that was exactly what I wanted her to do. I rolled and jumped as I came out of it. I flicked the lever up and the bookshelves opened up again. Unfortunately, now Skele stood between me and my way out again. She put herself right in between the bookshelves, blocking the way out.

I tried to do the same thing again, this time intending to tackle her since I knew she wouldn't move. I took as much of a running start as I could and lunged at her. It was like hitting concrete. She staggered a little, but I lost my footing fell to the ground, my face and shoulder throbbing in pain. Before I could get back up, she was on top of me, pinning my arms to the ground. I tried to get out of her grip, but it was like iron! And before I could even react, she slammed her lips onto mine. And, unfortunately, my mouth was open. Her tongue went inside and started licking everything. It was like she was _tasting_ me.

I pulled away as fast as I could. I looked back up at her and she didn't look like the shy person she was just minutes ago. No, now she had a wicked smile on her face and a hungry look in her eyes. She started nibbling at my neck and I had to hold back a gasp. F***ing hormones. I had to get her off me, now! Quickly, I moved my feet to her chest and pushed with all my strength. She flew off me. I got to my feet and bolted out of the small enchanting room. I was out the library in a matter of seconds. I burst out the door and back up the steps. I heard footsteps not too far behind. She may be stronger than me, but I was definitely faster. I ran faster and reached the door to the main section of the castle.

Not really caring where I went, I chose to go down a hallway to my left. It didn't matter where I went so long as I got away from Skele. I just rounded the corner of the hallway when I heard the door open. Immediately, I stopped, ceasing any noise I made. I heard uncertain footsteps, trying to decide which way to go. I prayed silently that she wouldn't choose to go left. Anywhere else, just not left!

To my immense relief, I heard her footsteps go up the main staircase. I guess she must have thought I must have run back to my room. Lucky me. I slumped down against the wall and rested. That run took a lot out of me. I felt something cold trickling down my neck. I lifted my fingers to my neck and saw red. I was bleeding! She actually bit a piece of skin off me!

"Dang it!"

"Who's there?"

I froze. Had Skele come back? This time I wasn't taking _any_ chances. I pulled out my staff and readied myself into a defensive position. I waited. It wasn't until I saw a flicker of green that I relaxed. Cupa turned the corner and I lowered my staff.

"Zyeke! What's…Oh my gosh, are you okay?" She asked with concern.

I put my staff back in my sling. "It's just a scratch, don't worry." I said trying to assure her I was ok.

"No, we need to get Melinda to heal it. I think I last saw her in the courtyard, come on!" She grabbed my hand and practically dragged me back towards the main room and out into the courtyard.

**Hope you all enjoyed the new chapter! Please remember to favorite/follow and leave a review! More reviews mean more people will likely read it! Thank you all for your continuous support!  
**


	6. Rot and Problems

Chapter 6

We burst into the courtyard. Well, she burst in. I was just pulled. We saw Melinda was sitting on one of the benches picking different flowers. She had changed since the throne room incident. She was now wearing a black sundress that stopped at her knees. She was still wearing her witch hat and she didn't seem to notice us yet. Cupa changed that.

"Melinda! Zyeke's hurt!" She said as we ran towards her. This sparked quite the reaction. She dropped the flowers instantly and pulled out her wand. With a wave, a makeshift bag had appeared on the bench next to her. She started rummaging through it. When we reached the bench, she pulled out a potion of healing and some bandages. Where did they get bandages? She pulled a knife from her bag and made a cut in the bandage. She sprinkled some other liquid on the bandage before applying the healing potion onto it.

Gently, she pressed the bandage to the wound on my neck. Miraculously, I didn't even have to hold it. It stayed there by itself, as if held by something. Maybe it was the liquid she sprinkled on it before the potion. I don't know, but I was happy for it. At least it stopped the bleeding.

"Zyeke…your shirt…" Melinda gasped.

I looked down to see that a large pool had darkened on the shirt on my left shoulder. The wound must have been a surface wound, because it bled a lot on my shirt. I moved to take it off, but then remembered that I was still standing in front of two princesses and moved my hands back down to my sides.

"You can take it off." Cupa said. "We don't mind. Do we Melinda?" She chuckled at her own joke. It also made Melinda blush a little.

"It won't do you any good to wear a bloody shirt Zyeke. It must be very uncomfortable." Melinda said as she turned her head away so I couldn't see her blush. It was a little late for that though.

After some debate, I decided to take it off. Having the feeling of a shirt dampened with your own blood was not a good feeling, even if it was from a small wound. Besides, Cupa and Melinda seemed to be a lot nicer and I didn't think they would try anything. At least, that's what I hoped. I took my shirt off. Like I said, I had an athletic build, despite being really skinny. Tae Kwon Do classes tend to make you sweat and with that sweat comes definition. Nevertheless, it was still a little uncomfortable being around girls with my shirt off. I was never very good with girls in the first place; this just made it even more awkward for me.

We all sat on the bench in silence. I, personally, relaxed for the first time since I got here. I put my hands behind my head and slumped in the bench. I look up at the stalactites hanging around the cavern, admiring their beauty, even in block form they still had a certain mystifying quality about them. Upon coming out of my stupor, I noticed that Melinda was picking up her flowers and Cupa was helping. Embarrassed, I got on the ground to help. I felt kind of guilty for not noticing earlier.

"So, what are these flowers for Melinda?" I asked.

"Well, I was picking them for their fragrance. I had a new idea for a potion and I needed to pick some roses and daffodils." She stated.

"Oh. Cool." I said.

"Hey, anyone else want to get something to eat? I'm starving!" Cuap exclaimed. Now that she mentioned it, food sounded great. It occurred to me that I hadn't eaten since I arrived at the bar. Other than a glass of water and the potions, I really hadn't had anything to eat or drink.

"Food sounds great to me." I said.

"I am getting a little hungry as well." Melinda said. "Plus, I need the break."

"Then it's settled! To the Cafeteria!" She took off running. Man, she was one bundle of energy!

Melinda and I exchanged smiles and ran after her. She took the right hallway from the main room and turned right at the corner. We got around the corner just in time to see her disappear into the first door on the right. I reached the door first and held it open for Melinda.

"Such a Gentleman." She said and smiled at me courteously.

"I try." I said as I did a tiny bow with my arm extended to bid her entry.

She giggled at this and walked inside. I followed and shut the door behind me. The cafeteria was more of a restaurant style atmosphere than the cafeterias I knew on earth. Glowstone chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The floor was decorated in a wood and sandstone checkerboard pattern. Tables and chairs were placed in certain areas and booths lined the outside walls. They used wool as cushions. There was a bar-like area with stools and brewing stands much like the one that was underground. We were the only ones here. A human skeleton waitress seated us and gave us books that served as menus. Maybe I would be able to get a hamburger!

My hopes were dashed when I opened the book and realized that the only dishes they had were minecraft based. No hamburgers. Or fries. Dang. The waitress asked us what we wanted to drink. Melinda ordered a potion of fire resistance and Cupa ordered a potion of healing. I just asked for water. A minute later she brought us our drinks and then she asked for our orders. Melinda ordered chicken drumsticks with carrots, Cupa ordered pork chops with a baked potato, and I ordered a full steak, pork, a baked potato, and carrots. Hey, I hadn't eaten for I don't know how long. I was hungry!

The waitress brought us our dishes on wooden plates with iron silverware. I dug straight in. It must not have taken me more than ten minutes to finish off all my food. Both the princesses stared at me, their mouths partly open. I muttered an apology and sat back against the cushions, my stomach full and satisfied. I needed that meal. When Melinda and Cupa had finished their meals, the waitress came back right on cue and took our plates.

"Man that was great!" I said with a satisfied sigh.

"I don't know how you can say that." Melinda countered. "It wasn't around long enough for you to taste it!"

This made us all laugh. In that moment, I felt glad to have them as my teammates. In the time I had been here, I was almost pummeled by an enderman, burnt to a crisp by Blazette, and eaten by Skele. This was the first time I had to relax since I got here. And Cupa and Melinda hadn't tried to do anything to me like Skele or Heroine. In fact, they were the nicest princesses I had the pleasure of meeting. They were kind, humorous, and caring. I couldn't think of better teammates.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash that came from the doorway and we turned our head to see the last person I wanted to see. Rot was standing in the doorway and boy did he look mad! Rot was dressed in a torn green t-shirt and torn black pants. The tears did well to show off his muscular body, making him look even more menacing. And the worst part was that he was glaring at me!

"You!" He said in a low, menacing, voice. "You made Skele cry! Now, I'm gonna make you cry!" He started walking towards us and I got of the booth and held up my hands in surrender.

"Whoah man," I said. "I think you have the wrong information. Skele…uff!"

I didn't get the chance to finish my sentence because Rot swung his bulgy arm and hit me straight in the stomach. I actually flew backwards! I crash into another table. Pain spiked up my back and side. I gritted my teeth and stood up, taking out my staff. I grabbed a chair with my free hand and hurled it at his chest. He knocked it away like it was a pebble, but he wasn't ready for the swing to hi s head! It connected and I saw the staff glow purple again for a second. After the glow, Rot flew to the side and landed rather painfully. Or at least, so I thought. He got right back up as if nothing had happened! What?! Oh, da** it, that's right! The book said that Rot didn't feel pain! How was I gonna beat this guy?

Melinda and Cupa had now come to my side, weapons raised. Melinda had a wand made out of an old piece of wood. I didn't know if it was old spruce or jungle wood. Maybe a mixture. Cupa just had plain dynamite sticks in each hand, ready to throw. Rot looked at the three of us and I guess he didn't like the odds of three to one. He pointed a finger at me.

"Mark my words, one of these times you won't have your teammates to rely on. That's when you'll get what you deserve you weakling scum." He said. He then ran towards the wall and rammed right through it. We heard the door next to us slam shut and him running down the hallway. What a f***ing creep. I put my staff away and walked over to the hole in the wall Rot created. All the blocks were littered on the floor in their small form. I started picking them up and putting them back in place. It wasn't the restaurant people's fault that their place was wrecked. Might as well do the best I could to help set things back in order.

Melinda was repairing the chairs and Cupa helped set the tables back up while I finished with the wall. I walked up to the nearest waitress and apologized and asked that she give my apology to everyone else. We left shortly afterwards. No sooner than we were out the door that Cupa and Melinda turned on me.

"What did you do to Skele?" Melinda questioned with a slight hint of anger in her voice.

Cupa didn't even try to conceal her frustration. "Yeah? What was all that about?"

Why did everyone have to be against me? I was getting a little tired of defending myself all the time. Physically and Mentally. "Look, I didn't mean to make Skele cry…" It was a bad way to try and start an explanation because I was cut off by a slap to the face. It was Cupa who slapped me and da** did it sting! I lifted a hand and felt tender skin. I didn't have to look to see that it was red. Even Melinda looked a little surprised at Cupa's reaction. I guess it wasn't like her to flat out slap people.

"You listen here Zyeke! Skelly is one of my better friends besides Andr and Melinda. You make either one of them unhappy and you'll deal directly with me again you here?" she practically shouted at me.

I felt anger boil up inside of me and I knew that if I spoke it would be something nasty. I did the best thing I could. I turned around and walked away from my teammates. That moment of joy had disappeared from our history apparently.

"Where are _you_ going?" Cupa shouted after me.

"Away." I answered, trying to keep my anger under control. "You can find me again when you want to find out the full story." I turned my head toward her, "Or have you already forgotten the wound on my neck?" There was silence. I shook my head and walked down the hallway and turned left, going deeper into the castle. I didn't know where I was going, but it didn't really matter to me. I just needed some time alone. I walked until I found a door. I opened it and walked inside.

I was a little surprised to see that I had walked into what looked like a training gym. A couple of punching bags made from leather were hanging from the ceiling by iron brackets in the left corner of the gym. A sort of boxing ring was made out of blue wool and had wooden posts at each corner with string tied to each post. The string looked a lot thicker than normal though. I quick pluck proved that it was just as strong as rope. Weights fashioned out of iron were lying on the floor to the right of the "ring". Pull up bars, also made of iron, stood in the upper right corner of the room. _How lucky am I?_

I did wonder where the minecraft inhabitants got the ideas for these earth-like rooms. First it was the restaurant. Even Cupa had called it a "cafeteria". Now I was in this very human-like room that resembled a mixture between a crossfit gym and a boxing school very well. It just seemed a little strange. I shrugged and decided that I would ask about it later. Right now, I wanted to blow of some steam.

I sat down on the floor and started doing some stretching exercises. I didn't want to pull something in the middle of exercising, especially when the tournament event was tomorrow. Once I finished, I decided I would try some of the weights in the corner and then do some pull ups. The weights were round, circular, discs which were connected by a single small iron bar. Kinda looked like a dumbbell. There were a lot of sizes and they were all marked on the side. The lowest one they had was twenty pounds. It was a little higher than I usually worked with when I used dumbbells. Guess it was time to push myself.

With a small grunt, I picked up the weights in each hand. I started doing ten reps of different exercises I had been taught and I had taught myself. I don't remember the names of them or if they had names, but by the time I finished, I was sweating like a pig in the hot sun. I took off my shirt before I continued. I let my arms rest a little before I went to the pull up bars. I did some legs exercises and sit-ups until I felt that my arms were ready for pull ups. I had to jump a little to reach the bar, but once I had a grip, I started going up and down rhythmically. After twenty, I hopped down. I was starting to feel the slight pain in my muscles, which meant I had worked them well. I decided I'd try out the punching bag before I called it quits.

The punching bag was made out of black cow leather. I did a test kick on it and felt a small pain go up my foot. The punching bag didn't move or swing! I was a bit puzzled. What the heck was this thing filled with? Only then did it occur to me that this room was built for the princesses. I nearly smacked myself in the head. It explained why the weights were all larger than twenty pounds and why the punching bags were as solid as a brick. If I had any chance of beating them in a fight, I had to make this dang bag move! I threw a hard roundhouse followed by an elbow jab, then a backhand. The bag moved slightly and now my elbow was throbbing. I ignored it. If I was going to be any challenge at all, I had to learn to ignore this pain. It would happen every time I had a princess with my hand or elbow.

I let out a series of roundhouses, kick hops, double kicks, tornado kicks, and fast kicks to get my feet used to the pain. My were tougher than my hands, so the pain I felt was only slight. As long as I had a rest in between blows, I would be ok. I switched to doing punches and jabs. They hurt more than the kicks and I knew I wouldn't be able to do as many of those without resting. I pulled my staff out of my sling for a basic strike at head level. My staff glowed purple when it connected and the bag moved substantially. Renewed energy flowed through my body and I let out a combination of strikes at head and chest level. The bag never stopped moving. With a yell I did one final strike as the bag was coming towards me. There was a loud cracking noise and the bag came off of its iron hinges and flew towards the opposite wall. It landed with a loud thud and slumped to the ground. I let out a loud woop. I finally had hope that maybe I stood a chance in these games. That I could win!

"Very nicely done." A voice said from behind me.

I jumped and turned to see two princesses had entered. The one on the left I assumed to be princess Lone, the one on the right I assumed to be princess Katie. Lone was wearing some kind of fur, cavemen-like outfit that only did just enough to cover her…you get the picture. She had white hair that went to her shoulders, but it was young and vibrant, not like an old woman's. She was barefoot. Katie had long red colored hair that went to her mid-back. She was also barefoot. I guess the book was right when it said they didn't wear much, much like a lot of the princesses. I did my best to keep my eyes on their faces.

"Um, thanks? I hadn't realized I had an audience. When did you two get here?" I asked.

It was Katie who spoke "Oh, we only arrived to see you beating the punching bag with your…weapon." She had a playful edge to her voice, almost like it was suggestive. Toward what, I had no idea.

"I don't think we have been properly introduced." Lone said. Her voice sounded more mature. She walked up to me and extended her hand. "I am princess Lone of the wolves. Pleasure to meet you."

I hesitated for a second before I took her hand and shook. It was probably best not to be rude. "Zyeke Daniels, nice to meet you." I replied.

Katie kind of bounced her way over and flat out bear hugged me. "And I'm Katie!" She exclaimed.

"Nice to meet you…too Kaite." I gasped out, struggling to breath. She must have noticed this and let go with a silent apology.

"We were just heading to the cafeteria to get something to eat. Would you like to join us?" Lone asked.

"Wait, what time is it?" I asked. I glanced at my watch to see that it was almost six thirty human time. I didn't really know how long I had been in here and there was no way to tell if it was light or dark outside. I had worked up an appetite though. I looked over myself. I was pretty much drenched in sweat. No matter how hungry I was, I should get cleaned up first. "Thanks, but I think I should go get a shower or bath first. I'll join you both in the cafeteria when I finish. Ok?"

"We'll reserve a table for you then." Lone said.

"Woohoo! We get to sit with Zyeke!" Katie exclaimed.

I chuckled a bit and gathered up my things before heading to the door. I held it open for Lone and Katie, who both gave me astonishing smiles. When we had walked to the main hall, I headed towards the stairs and said a temporary goodbye to Lone and Katie. They seemed nice enough. Lone was more calm and collected more than Katie, but they both acted nice enough, even though they walked in on me while I was exercising. I know it wasn't their fault, but I was surprised I hadn't noticed. I needed to start paying more attention and sharpen my senses. I mean, if that had been Rot instead or Lone and Kaite, I would have been in deep sh**.

These thoughts hovered in my head while I walked to my room. I stopped in front of the door and was about to turn the knob when I saw that it was slightly ajar. That couldn't be good. I dropped my shirt and took out my staff in a defensive position. I pushed the door open with my staff. It was pitch black in there. I thought I recalled seeing a lever by the door, so I stepped in quickly and flicked it on. Instantly, the door slammed shut behind me and I was tackled to the floor. I heard the pushing of pistons and glowstone soon lit up the room. I turned on the floor to face my attacker. I was surprised to see a beaming Cupa sitting on top of me.

"Gotcha!" She said teasingly.

For a moment, I was completely stunned. DIdn't she just hate me a couple hours ago or something like that? After a few seconds I was able to actually put my confusion into words. "Cupa?! What…Why…How…Don't do that!" Couldn't have said it better myself. Cupa cut me off with a wave of her hand.

"I talked to Skele. She feels really bad about what happened. She isn't usually like that and she has never been around a real human before. She has these urges. Sometimes she can control them, sometimes she can't. When you had given her the slip and her urge dissipated, she felt terrible for what she did and went to her room and started crying. She said Rot overheard her and demanded to know who made her cry. Being in the unstable state she was in, she answered him without thinking. He then stormed out of her room to look for you. This is what she tells me anyway." She said. Then in a softer voice she said, "I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions and slapped you. It was wrong and I promise not to do it again without hearing everything first. Will you forgive me?"

Shock overtook me for the second time in the last two minutes. At first, I didn't know what to say until I saw Cupa turn her face towards mine. She looked like she was about to cry. I didn't want that.

"It's ok Cupa, I forgive you." I said with a small smile, glad to have my teammate back.

With a squeal, she embraced in my second bear hug of the day. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She kept saying.

"Cupa…your hurting…me!" I managed to get out.

She quickly broke off the bear hug and apologized with a slight blush. We stayed silent for a few seconds.

"Uh, Cupa?"

"Yeah?"

"Not trying to rude or anything, but could you please get off me?" I said gesturing with my head to my body.

"Oh, sorry!" She got off me.

I stood up and faced her. She looked to be back to her usual happy, carefree self again, which was good.

"Hey, where'd you disappear off to after our…fight?" She asked.

"Oh, I found a gym room and worked out there for a while." She seemed confused when I said the word gym and I then remembered that she didn't know anything about the human world. "I found a room with a bunch of weights and a fighting area, I mean." After I said 'fighting area' she figured out what I was talking about.

"Ah, that would explain why you're not wearing a shirt again, or are you just trying to impress the ladies?" She said with a teasing smile.

I felt myself turning red as I quickly denied her accusation. She started laughing at me. It wasn't long before I joined her. I felt good again, just like I felt when we were in the restaurant before Rot came in.

"So, are you going to come down and eat soon?" She asked.

"Yes, I'll be right down after I clean up. Oh, right, I promised to sit with Lone and Katie when they ran into me at the training room. I'm sure we can all sit together though, right?"

"Sounds good to me. The more the merrier!" She gave me one last smile and walked out of my room.

After a quick search of my room I found a door by the kitchen that I hoped would lead to a bathroom. I was right. I stepped into a bathroom with a tiled floor and a bathtub-looking box with a spigot. There was a minecraft shaped sink like the one in the underground bar and a toilet. A mirror hung above the sink. There were four buttons above the spigot. One labeled "HW" and the another labeled "CW". There were two other buttons with the same letter H and C, but there was an "L" next to it. I was going to assume that was lava and I wondered how they would make lava cold, but I just pressed the button labeled "HW".

Water came out of the spigot pretty quickly and the tub was filled in seconds. I stripped off my clothes and hopped in. Oh my gosh it felt like heaven! I didn't think I'd ever say I loved a hot bath, but right now, I was loving every bit of it. My body relaxed and I just laid there for a few minutes, enjoying the hot water. I then proceeded to clean myself with a soap bar they had on the edge of the tub. I wasn't sure how they got it since it wasn't native to minecraft, but at that moment, I didn't really care.

After washing and relaxing for about fifteen minutes, I got out and dried myself with a towel. My clothes needed to be washed and I didn't want to wear sweaty clothes after just getting clean. There was a chest inside the bathroom by the sink I hadn't noticed and it was stockpiled full of wool blocks. I grabbed a bunch of blue wool and black wool and headed out of the bathroom to the crafting table.

I know there wasn't really a recipe for wool clothing, but I just laid the blocks out as if I was making armor and prayed for the best. Thankfully, I was rewarded with blue pants and a black t-shirt. How awesome is that? I put on the new clothes and was surprised at how well they fit me. They were the perfect size and comfortable too. I debated on bringing the staff and decided that I might should just in case. After slipping it on and examining myself in the bathroom mirror, I walked out the door to join my peers for dinner.

**Hi guys! I hope you all enjoyed chapter 6! I'd like to make a deal with all who are reading my fanfiction, and this deal will be continuous. It normally takes me 4-6 days to post a new chapter, but if I can get 8 review for this chapter, I will be sure to update chapter 7 in 2-3 days from the day the 8th review is posted. If not, then I'll just take the time I normally do. The quality will not diminish because of my rushing. I will just spend more time on it with my days. As always, don't forget to review, follow, favorite, and tell everyone you know about the story so they can read and review. Thank you all for your awesome support! Really helps me. Till next time!  
**


	7. Before the Storm

Chapter 7

When I entered the caferteria again, the restaurant was abuzz with activity. Waitresses were constantly on the move, bringing drinks and food. Music was playing from a jukebox, music disc chirp I believe. Drinks were almost consistently sliding down the bar table into the hands of princesses and Human mobs. Man, this place was pretty busy at dinnertime.

I looked around a bit and saw Katie waving me over to a table. Lone, Melinda, and Cupa were also there. There was an empty chair beside Melinda. I walked over and sat down. A waitress came over and took our orders. I ordered a chicken, Lone ordered a steak, Katie ordered fish, Cupa ordered steak, and Melinda ordered Pork. She set off to get the food.

"So, Zyeke, how did you come to be here at this tournament?" Lone asked. "I've been curious to know since I heard the news.

"Well, it's a bit of a long story." I then brought Lone and Katie up to speed on everything that had happened to me since I arrived here in minecraft. I made sure to leave out the part about Skele though. Cupa gave me a look of thanks when I finished the story, grateful that I had left Skele out of it. And why not? If she really felt terrible, I didn't see any sense in trying to make her public enemy number one. Katie was especially surprised when I talked about fighting the enderman. Lone was too, but she tried to hide it.

"That _is_ very interesting. And you say you have no idea how you arrived here?" Lone asked.

"Not really. I suspect Herobrine had something to do with it, but I don't know for sure. And if her did, I still don't know how." I replied.

The waitress came and brought us our food. I took my time in eating this time. The flavor of the chicken was great! I needed to get the chef's recipe. He, or she, was able to get the chicken white, but still moist and juicy. I could only do that on rare occasions, and I like to cook a lot. The princesses talked amongst themselves about their kingdoms. Inquiries about the well-being of the other kingdoms were exchanged as well as any personal hobbies they'd acquired, new interests in clothes or hairstyles, that sort of thing. I mostly just stayed quiet and listened. That's mostly what I do in groups anyway.

"So, Zyeke, what about you?" Katie asked. "What is your kingdom like?"

Oh gosh, where do I begin? I started off by telling them that my "kingdom" was a very long ways from here. I then started to tell that not everything in my kingdom was a block. There were different shapes and sizes to everything. This seemed to blow their minds. I'm not kidding; they gave me this dumbfounded look and prompted me to keep going. I started explaining that food didn't grow as quickly as it did here and that there were many other different types of food and food styles. I described animals from earth like deer, rabbits, squirrels, etc. After I had gotten the basics of nature done, I told them about electricity, which I related to redstone, just more powerful. I told them about cars, planes, skyscrapers, and trains. By the time I finished , they all looked like they were in shock.

"Oh my gosh, I wish I could go there!" Katie exclaimed.

"Me too!" Cupa agreed.

"I wish to as well." Lone said.

"I guess we all have a bigger motive for winning the tournament them don't we?" Melinda chimed.

"Yeah! Let's all make a pact! If any one of us wins the enderpearl, let's make sure we're all there to go to Zyeke's kingdom!" Cupa said.

Shouts and cheers came from all around the table, even me. Did I know if we could actually do that? No, but one can always hope. We had since finished our food and a waitress came and picked up our plates. The girls started talking amongst themselves again, which is why I happened to notice Skele approaching our table. I tensed up a bit upon seeing her, but figured that would send a bad vibe or something to her, so I relaxed a little. The other princesses took notice of Skele's presence and turned to face her. She ignored them and walked straight up to my chair. I stood up, partly to be polite and partly to be ready in case she had another "urge". There was a brief silence at our table.

"Zyeke…listen", she said softly, "I'm…sorry about what happened in the library. I let my nature cloud my judgment and ended up hurting you in the process. I know you have every right to hate me and I know I have no right to ask forgiveness, but… "

I raised a hand to silence her. "It's ok Skele, I forgive you. Just…don't let it happen again ok?"

She smiled a little. "Ok."

"Would you like to sit with us? We could always use more company."

"No, I think it'd be best that I stay away from you until I learn to control myself. I look forward to maybe talking with you once I do though. I wish you luck tomorrow."

"Good luck to you too Skele."

She then turned and left without another word. Once she was out of earshot, Cupa and the other princesses started patting me on the back. I just shooed them off. Something like that didn't need a pat on the back. It was simply giving a person another chance. I always like to think that most people are good, even if they have done something bad, like Skele did. The best I could do was to give her another chance to be good again. Hopefully it would work out that way.

After another hour of talking, I decided to dismiss myself so that I would be well rested for tomorrow. The princesses tried to get me to stay a little longer, but I politely declined, saying I was getting really tired and might fall asleep in my chair. I bid all of them a good night and exited the restaurant.

The castle looked a lot different at night. I know we were in a cavern, but the lighting still changed like it was nighttime. The torches casts shadows off the walls and the halls were mostly empty. Occasionally, a skeleton or human mob servant would pass by, but otherwise the hallways remained clear. As I arrived at the main room, I decided I wanted to see what the cave looked like at nighttime. I changed direction and headed out to the courtyard.

The courtyard exhibited even more beauty in the torchlight than during the day. There was a slight breeze that made the flowers dance slightly and the hedges rustle their leaves. I glanced up at the ceiling and was astonished. There was now a large circular hole in the ceiling with the moon overhead. I don't know how I missed it before when I was out here with Cupa and Melinda, but now I reveled in the moon's beauty. Even though it was a square, it still looked just as good as the moon I remembered. I guess no matter where you go, some things still maintain their wonder. The moon, the sun, the stars. I laid down on the grass, arms behind my head, and just watched the stars twinkle.

"Enjoying yourself?" A sinishter, slightly demonic, voice asked.

I turned to see Herobrine a few feet away. I probably should have been afraid, but I remained surprisingly calm. For some reason, I wasn't scared at all.

"Actually, I am." I said. "And you're kind of ruining it right now. Mind coming back another time?"

"Oh how I admire your sense of humor. Out of place and not funny in the slightest."

"Was there something you wanted?" I asked impatiently.

"No, just checking in. Wondering when you'll be giving up, or when you'll perish. One or the two. I found it interesting how you forgave Skele. Very interesting indeed."

I stood up and faced those cold white eyes. "I got some news for you Herobrine," I started, "I, our team, are going to win the tournament event and how ever many more after. I will be the one to win the pearl and get home. You can count on that."

He laughed a laugh that villains often do to the hero when there's something the villain knows that the hero doesn't. "I sincerely hope you do Zyeke. You have my best wishes." He laughed again and teleported away, his laughter still ringing in my ears. What a creep. Playing mind games with me wasn't going to work. I was getting back home, no matter what.

I yawned. It was time to hit the sack. I exited the courtyard and climbed the stairs to the door that led to the rooms. Once I arrived at my door, I was grateful to see that it was exactly as I left it, with no signs of entry. I opened the door and stepped inside. The lights were off and I fumbled for the light switch. I was happy when I heard the satisfying _click_ and the sound of pistons re-arranging. The room was again doused with light.

And with my improved vision, a new image came into view. I instantly recognized the black clothing and long amber-colored hair. Andr sat on the bed in a black nightgown. I guess that physical evidence of a break-in just doesn't matter anymore.

"Hello." She said.

"Hello, Andr right? What are you doing in my room?"

She looked at me with coy eyes "Oh, I hadn't noticed that this was your room. My sincerest apologies Zyeke." She said. Her voice was almost a whisper. Maybe that was to make people listen?

"That's alright…" I said cautiously, "Anyone could have made the mistake. Would you like me to walk you to your room?"

"Oh, but your room is soo much better! The bed's comfier and the atmosphere isn't quite so dull." She said.

"Oh, and why's that?" I asked.

She didn't answer my question. She look at me and smiled, then disappeared. Purple particles floated at the spot she occupied. Before I could even blink, she re-appeared back in front of me, a little too close. I tried backing up, but I hit the wall. How in the world was I stupid enough not to leave some space behind me? Was I that dumb? She was only inches from my face.

"Because you're here, Zyeke." She said before she closed the gap and kissed me. Her lips tasted sweet like cotton candy and I almost got lost in it. Almost. I put my hands on her shoulders and gently tugged her off me. She looked at me, confused.

"Andr, why are you doing this?" I asked. I really wanted a straight answer. It was kinda funny, I never had much luck with girls on earth, but here it was the complete opposite. And I'm not sure I liked it that way. I had morals and these princesses were making it extremely hard to uphold them! Physically and Mentally!

"Why not? What's wrong with it?" She was getting a little irritated. I could tell by the way her soft voice had turned not so soft all of a sudden.

"Well…you see…I was raised on the notion that we didn't _do it_ with someone unless he or she truly felt something for the other person. I'm sorry Andr, but we kinda just met less than a minute ago. I hardly know you, other than a few things." I was trying my best not to sound like a jacka**, but at the same time trying to get my point across.

Andr stepped away from m, her head hung low. I was about to say something to lift her spirits, but then she snapped her head up. Her eyes had turned a darker purple, one that looked menacing.

"If I can't have you voluntarily, then I'll make you!" She said. A purple aura had started to form around her.

I could feel the raw ender energy, the raw power that radiated from her body. I think it was high time to get the hell out of there! I turned and burst out the door. I didn't get far. As soon as I stepped out the door into the hallway, she appeared in front of me. I jumped to the side immediately to dodge a punch I hadn't even seen coming. I pulled out my staff and broke it in two. If I had any chance of surviving this, it was going to come to down to my skill with this staff.

She teleported around in the hallway in front of me, moving from one place to another in the blink of an eye! Before I even knew it, she was behind me and suddenly there was a large pain in my back and I was in the air. I landed hard on my shoulder and let out a loud grunt. She did the same tactic again, but this time her last teleport was right in front of me. She sent a punch to my chest and I flew back again. I hit the ground and started gasping for air. I couldn't breathe! My stomach was doing butterflies. I thought I was going to lose my dinner.

There had to be a way to win against Andr. Everyone has a weakness, no matter how powerful, I just needed to find it! Or at least find something that would help me be able to fight back against her. She started teleporting again, and that's when I noticed it. There was a very tiny sound each time she teleported. A quiet _Woop_ like every enderman has. I just needed to listen for it. As she got closer, the _woops_ became more discernible. Her final teleport was behind me, so I jumped back and spun around to block a punch with my staff. She telepoerted back in front of me. I blocked it.

This had become much like a game. She kept teleporting around me and I had to block. Shortly, I began to notice a sort of pattern in her teleportation. Behind, front, side, side, behind, front, side, front…She always tried for a side teleport after she'd miss the front and back. After I blocked a teleport from her front, I took a risk. Quickly, I swung one piece of each staff to my side. This attack left me wide open for any back or front attack if I missed. The staff on my right stopped and glowed purple. Andr flew backwards with a surprised look on her face. This was my chance!

I ran toward her and with strength I hadn't realized I had, I slammed the two pieces of the staff in an X down in the concrete besides Andr's neck. The enchantment probably helped me get it into the stone, but now Andr was trapped. I pinned her arms, then her legs. I don't think she could teleport if someone had a hold or was touching her, or at least, that's what I hoped. After a minute of struggle, she lay still, exhausted. Good thing, because I don't think I could have kept her pinned like that for much longer. She looked up at me with sad eyes. I sighed. D*** girls and the way they can look absolutely helpless.

"Andr, stop." I know I had already pinned her, but that wasn't what I meant when I said that. She seemed to understand what I meant though. "Are you calm enough that I can let you go?" She nodded slowly.

I got off her and pulled on the staff pieces. They glowed and unhinged themselves from the stone. I put them back together and put it back into the sling. I helped Andr up. Big mistake. She took my hand and pulled me down. I was surprised and before I knew it, I was pinned. Now she was on top of me. Oh the irony.

"Very well done Zyeke. That was pretty impressive, I actually felt pain. It proves that even you as a human can be my boyfriend. You definitely have the potential. Of course, there are a few things that need to change, but we can talk about that later."

She was already acting like she _owned_ me. Who did she think she was? Oh, that's right, the princess of endermen and probably daughter of the enderdragon. "What makes you think I would be _your_ boyfriend! You just beat the s*** outta me and now you want me to be all lovely-dovey with you. I don't think so." I said boldly.

"What makes you think you have a choice?"

An idea came to me. A risky one, but it was better than the alternative. "How about this," I proposed, "If your team wins the event tomorrow, I'll be yours. I will do as you ask and I will be the model boyfriend that you want. I will do so without complaint or struggle. But, if my team wins, you have to leave me alone and not try this crap again. If any of the other teams win, then nothing will change. Deal?"

Her eyes lit up and she smiled another coy smile. "Ok, it's a deal. I look forward to you being mine Zyeke." She got off me and started walking away, presumably back to her room. She stopped about halfway down the hall. "Until tomorrow then."

I tried to get up and felt a huge pain in my shoulder and chest. I laid back down on the floor. My chest continued to ache and I wondered if maybe I had a broken rib. Or three. Slowly, once the pain dulled, I got to my feet. I hobbled back to my room. I had to do something about my chest or else I would be Andr's slave/boyfriend for the rest of my life. I hobbled to the chest and retrieved the ingredients for potions of regeneration.

I hobbled back to the brewing stands and carefully mixed in the ingredients. When the potions finally turned a light pink, I added glowstone dust to boost the effects. I grabbed a potion bottle, took a deep breath or tried to, then downed the whole bottle.

You know how in minecraft, you drink a regeneration potion and your avatar just magically regains hearts? Well, it isn't like that at all when you drink one for real. I _felt_ my broken ribs move and connect themselves back before the cells started repairing themselves. It _hurt_! Have you ever dislocated your shoulder or arm? Know how it feels when someone re-locates it? Multiply that by about 20 and you'll have what I was feeling. And this lasted for 45 seconds. It wasn't over after one either. I had to drink all three. I felt the pain of what it would feel like to be in the hospital with a few broken ribs in a little over two minutes. Mercifully, the pain was almost completely gone after the two minute mark and my whole body felt almost normal. There was still the tiniest of aches in my chest, but it was manageable now.

I crawled into bed, exhausted from the fight and the aftermath. I don't think I lasted three seconds once my head hit the pillow.

I awoke to sunlight cracking through my window. It was blinding and I had to shield my eyes before I was able to see again. The only evidence of what happened last night was from the empty glass bottles on the floor. My ache was gone and my body felt as it had when I first arrived. Maybe a little better even. I threw off the covers and discovered that the clothes I had thrown aside when I took my bath were folded and clean. There was also a note attached. I slipped out of the wool clothes and put on my black jeans and blue shirt. It felt good to have my regular clothes back. It felt…right. The note said to meet in the courtyard in ten minutes. I didn't know what time the note was left for me, so I grabeed my staff and hurried down the hall to the courtyard.

A lot of the princesses were there, but I was glad that I wasn't the last to arrive. Heroine and Andr were missing from the group. Fine with me. I looked for Cupa and Melinda. I found them sitting at the same bench we had sat at yesterday. I sat down next to Cupa.

"Good morning." I said.

"Morning Zyeke! Are you ready?" She asked in her usual chipper mood.

"Ready as I'll ever be I suppose. I'm a bit nervous to tell you the truth. And a bit scared."

"Don't worry, we'll stick together as a team and cover each others backs." Melinda said.

I nodded towards them both. I'm glad that if I was going into a really dangerous situation, I was glad it was with them. I knew they would protect me as much as I'd protect them. I looked up to see Lone and Katie approaching us.

"Good luck today Zyeke. I hope you had a good night's rest." Lone said.

I chuckled at her comment. If only she knew. "Thank you Lone. Good luck to your team too." I held out my hand for her to shake. She seemed a bit confused, but she took my hand and shook. I offered Katie my hand and we shook.

"Good luck to you too Katie." I said.

"Yeah, you also." She replied.

Andr and Heroine arrived and Lone and Katie moved back towards their group. Andr and Heroine didn't speak to each other and walked towards their respective groups. Heroine came over to where we were sitting. I was kind of nervous to see Heroine since what she said at the minecarts. _There will be plenty of time for that later._ I shivered a bit, but she was a great asset to the team. She was the only one who could likely stand up to Andr since they both had teleportation abilities.

"Good morning Heroine. Did you sleep well?" I asked, trying to be polite.

"I don't sleep, but the night was nice." She said calmly. She turned to face the whole team. "I will be dealing with Andr, keeping her off your backs. Please don't let that be wasted." We all nodded.

"Attention! All partcipatns step forward to the center of the courtyard!"

We all made out way to the fountain. I saw all the princesses briefly before the loud voice from before started speaking again. I assumed it was the king that was speaking.

"The enderdragon was kind enough to lend us his teleportation ability to teleport you all to the arena setting. You will be sent there momentarily."

Surely enough, a few seconds later, the scene in front of me changed from the courtyard of the castle to a plains area bordered by a jungle biome. We were placed in a small fort made out of netherbrick. I guess this was our "base". I saw similar bases built by different minecraft boxes arranged in a circle. There were a variety of houses set on the plains biome, some small villagers-like houses, and some were the equivalent to villas or chateaus. The jungle biome was just as you'd expect a jungle biome to be. Tall jungle trees stretched as far as the eye could see. Some had cocoa beans growing on them, but most were bare, with vines hanging off their leaves. It was very much like a normal jungle biome, except for the absence of vines on the wood portion of the trees.

"Welcome to your first event! The goal is simple, find a flag with a purple emblem of the enderdragon on it and bring it back to your established base. A tnt blast will sound when a team has accomplished this and one will sound to start the event. The enderdragon has even been kind enough to give you a hint." A very gruff and loud voice came over whatever they were using to project their voices. "The flag will be in something obvious to you, but hidden in plain sight. Good luck to you all. Begin."

A tnt blast sounded. The event had begun!

**I hope you all enjoyed as always. Who do you think will win? Where is the flag? I guess you'll find out in the next chapter. As always, leave a review, favorite, and follow the story if you are enjoying it. Until next time. Zyeke.**


	8. Capture the flag

Chapter 8

Everyone was remarkably still for the first few seconds. Then, everyone bolted out of their bases. Some went to the plains biome to inspect the houses, others went to the jungle. Heroine told us she was about to teleport to Andr, but I asked her to wait a minute. I didn't think Andr was going to find it right away, plus I needed some time to contemplate the enderdragon's riddle. Something obvious to me, but hidden. Hmm. The houses were obvious to me and the flag could be hidden in one of them. Which meant it would probably be in the biggest mansion. I told my team my theory and we all agreed.

We all ran to the biggest mansion, which happened to be one of Victorian style. Images were carved on the wood along windowsills. I looked a little closer and I saw that the image carved along the far left window was indeed a flag. We must have been on the right track! I asked Heroine to check the upper rooms and Cupa, Melinda, and I would check the ground floor and basement. She simply nodded and teleported inside. We burst in through huge spruce doors to find that, unfortunately, we weren't the only ones here in the mansion. It turns out Andr's team had come to the same conclusion we had, or maybe they just saw the flag carving hidden on the windowsill. Whatever the case, Rot, Andr, Inksabella, and Mira were all standing there in the middle of the mansion between two beautiful marble staircases. It was almost like they were waiting for us.

"Hello again Zyeke." Andr said.

Crap! I needed to stall for time. I'm not sure any of us could take Andr on except Heroine. "Just decided we would pay a visit. Why are you here?"

"The flag. It's here, but we don't know where. We already checked upstairs and part of the ground floor. No luck, but now that you all have come along things can get more interesting."

She teleported right in front of me. It took me by surprise and I wasn't ready for the hand that came for my throat. She slammed me against the wall. I grunted in pain. Cupa and Melinda tried to help me, but soon found themselves engaged with Mira and Inksabella. Rot started heading towards me and Andr. Not good!

Andr gave me a devilish smile. "Where's Heoine? Was she too scared to come to the party?"

"She's right behind you." I heard her say.

In an instant, Adnr let me fall and went on the attack against Heroine. They started street fighting, but it soon turned to them teleporting all around the mansion, sometimes exchanging hits in mid-air. I would have been awe-struck had it not been for Rot comeing closer.

"Didn't I tell you one day you wouldn't have your teammates to rely on? Weakling!"

I got up off the floor and pulled out my staff. "I don't need them to kick the living s*** out of your undead a**" I spat.

He smiled and full out charged me. I jumped to the side just in time. He smashed through the wall of the mansion! Any second longer and I would have been roadkill. He turned around immediately. I had to remember that he could do almost anything to himself because his body did not feel pain. I found myself wondering if he felt anything at all other than hate and rage because of the way he was. I kind of felt a little sorry for him.

It didn't last long as he charged me again, this time faster. I was ready. I jumped to the side at the last minute intentionally and got a clean hit on his back. He went tumbling down, scraping up floor boards as he skid. Now it was my turn to be on the attack. I ran up to him as he was getting up and did a swift strike to the chin. He actually left the ground a couple inches! Gotta love the power V enchantment! Not wanting to miss my opportunity, I switched hands, did a flip, and slammed my staff down as hard as I could on Rot's chest. He hit the ground with really loud _thud_. I knew that since he didn't feel pain, he'd probably be back up in a few seconds. I wondered briefly if I could knock him out. Was it possible to knock a zombie out? It was worth a shot. I prepared my staff to do one final blow to his head, but as I swung down, my hand was caught by something slimy.

I looked to see that a black tentacle had wrapped itself around my hand! Inksabella, in the middle of fighting Cupa, had stopped my hand! Rot didn't hesitate. He sent a punch to my gut that felt like I was hit full on by a freight train. I let out a gasp and flew backward, my staff bouncing on the ground a couple feet away. And at that moment, I did heave. I felt last night's content come back up and soon the wood floor was littered with the remains of the chicken from the night before. I was still gasping for air after I finished. Rot laughed as started walking towards me.

I got to my feet uneasily. I was uncoordinated and still a little groggy from puking. I wasn't at all ready for Rot's next attack. He grabbed me by the neck and slammed me against the wall. He started squeezing! My breath caught in my throat, but soon that too was gone. I gasped and gasped, hoping air would magically find its way into my lungs. After a second Rot lessened his grip and I could breathe again.

"I know what I should do to you. Let's see how the princesses like you after I turn you into me!"

And before I knew what was happening, he bit into my forearm. I yelled out in pain. Blood spurted from the wound as he clamped his teeth down more. I felt Rot's poison travel into my arm and it burned! Suddenly, there was a loud _BOOM _and Rot's teeth disconnected from my arm. I fell to the ground clutching my arm. I turned to see Cupa sending volley after volley of tnt into Rot. He just laughed the whole time. Until one exploded right in front of his head and he wasn't undead anymore. His body slumped to the ground, headless. Cupa ran over to me, panic stricken.

"Zyeke! Are you ok? I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I wasn't faster." She lloked like she was on the verge of tears. The burning on my arm had gone down slightly, but it still felt like someone was holding a lighter underneath my arm.

"I'm…alright…Cupa. Find Melinda and…flag." I sputtered out. I had to grit my teeth to ignore the pain.

"I'm not leaving you here! "

With a pained grunt, I forced myself to get up. My arm screamed and flared up again. I clutched it with a pained gasp. I put more pressure on it and turned to face Cupa.

"Go! I'll head back to the base." I said. I grabbed my staff off the ground and started stumbling toward the door. Cupa gave me a worried look before she turned and headed downstairs.

It must have taken me a whole ten minutes to get back to our base. I was surprised I wasn't attacked on my way back. Either everyone was searching for the flag or they just didn't view me as a threat. Probably the latter. I slumped down against a wall, still putting pressure on my arm. It didn't hurt as much now, just a dull throbbing pain. That wasn't what worried me though. _Let's see how the princesses like you when I turn you into me!_ I shuddered. Was I really going to turn into a zombie? Did I just have an internal clock that was ticking down to my inevitable death? I couldn't think like that. No, I am not going to die! I still have something I have to do! I need to get back home! I'll never give up!

I don't know how much time had passed, but I saw Cupa and Melinda running back to the base, without a flag. When Melinda saw me, she got straight to work and started dressing my wound with cloth bandages and liquid substances from her bag. They stung, but for the most part, I kept the pain hidden. No sense in worrying them anymore than they were. Melinda waved her wand and spoke in a language I was not familiar with. Her eyes changed to a vibrant blue and she looked like she was examining me. Cupa looked at Melinda expectantly when she finished. She slowly shook her head.

"The poison is already in his system. I can't do anything about it now, its spread to far. I'm sorry." She said quietly. I thought I saw a tear drop from her eye.

"Hey," I said with a small smile, "I'm not dead yet. Don't count me out just yet." They seemed to perk up once I said this. I looked between Cupa and Melinda. "What happened back there? Was the flag there?"

"We found a flag in the basement, but it was nothing more than a hoax. The flag was blue and didn't have the enderdragon symbol on it. It was all for nothing!" She shouted in anger. She threw a tnt block five times the size of a regular one into the air. It exploded with a huge _BOOM!_ Then she ran over to me and broke down. She embraced me and started crying against my shoulder.

"I don't want you to die Zyeke! I don't want you to become a zombie! I don't want to have to…" She continued sobbing and I comforted her as best I could. I tried saying soothing things to her and told her that I wasn't going to leave on her or the team. Although, even as I spoke, I could feel the poison spreading through my body, a feeling of death traveling through my veins. I couldn't even feel my arm anymore. I could move it, but my nerves didn't register the air that breezed against my arm. Melinda started crying too. I felt so terrible. How had I allowed myself to be so weak? To allow that creep Rot to bite me? I was having trouble holding back my tears.

"Listen, both of you!" I yelled. This startled them, but they needed to hear this. And so did I for that matter. "I don't know what's going to happen to me to tell you the truth. But I promise you, I will fight against death for as long as I possibly can. Right now we need to figure out what our next move is and where the flag may be. Ok?"

They both wiped their tears and nodded. We all sat there for a few minutes, thinking. If the flag was in an obvious place, like the houses or the mansions, it would have been found by the other teams by now definitely. Which means it definitely wasn't in the plains biome. That left the jungle. _The flag will be in an obvious place, but it will be hidden in plain sight._ The enderdragon's only clue. Then, something dawned on me. Maybe the flag wasn't the type of flag we all had thought. Maybe it wasn't a large, stereotypical flag we had all thought. Maybe it was small, making it easily hidden.

I looked at the jungle trees. The cocoa beans! Where else would someone think to look last? Inside something that was so small, they never would have thought to look, but having it right in front of their faces. Hidden in plain sight. I struggled to get up and started walking to the first jungle tree I saw that had cocoa beans. It was the tallest tree in the whole forest. _Close to everyone too, very clever Mr. Enderdragon, but ol' Zyeke has figured you out._ I started climbing a vine that hung down from the top leaves of the tree. My teammates looked at me like I was insane and maybe I was. Maybe the poison was starting to make me go insane and think crazy thoughts, but I knew I had to be right! I climbed higher and higher, getting close to the only cocoa bean on the whole tree. At the very top. My body started tiring out about halfway and I started getting dizzy. That wasn't normal. I think the poison was starting to take effect. Maybe it had reached my brain and was systematically shutting it down. I kept climbing.

When I reached the top, my vision started going blurry and my head felt like it was swimming laps around an Olympic size swimming pool. I felt my grip on the vine I was holding loosen. I had to hurry! I started swinging the vine to get closer to the tree. Closer to the cocoa bean. It was more like a big brown blob now. Black spots invaded my vision and I didn't feel my hand on the vine anymore. Air rushed past me. Was I falling? I didn't stay conscious long enough to find out.

I woke in my bed at my home. I looked around crazily. My room was exactly how I left it. TV on my dresser, clothes piled up in my laundry basket; I really needed to wash them. My gaming posters hung on my wall and my minecraft chest that my brother made for me was next to my bed. Everything was exactly as I left it the night before. _What a wild dream. So vivid, so real. Maybe I'll write about it._ I threw the covers off my bed and walked to my bedroom door. I needed to go to the bathroom and splash some water on my face. Get back to feeling normal.

The moment I opened my door, I knew something was very wrong. Blood stained the tile floor hallway that led to the other bedrooms. The blood trail led to my mother's bedroom doorway. A sense of fear and worry plowed into me like a fighter jet. I hurried to my mother's bedroom and burst inside. The scene I witnessed was horrifying. I stared directly at a person about my height dressed in blue jeans and a black t-shirt. He was covered in blood, pale, and it looked like half of his face had decayed off.

What I saw next frightened me more than I ever felt before. The person was eating something. No, not something, someone. _MOM!_ He was bent over my mother's corpse, digging his head into her chest, tearing out her innards as if they were made of paper. I puked. I couldn't help myself. The scene was too traumatizing and horrid. It was a mistake. The person was alerted to my presence and as he turned to face me, I gasped. The person was me! The monster in front of me let out a freakish shriek as it barred it's rotted yellow teeth. I ran from the room.

I made it to the bathroom and I tried to close the door behind me, but the creature was already there and blocked the door. It tackled me to the floor and pinned my arm down. Without hesitation, it bit into my arm. I screamed in pain as it kept digging it's teeth into my flesh. Blood started soaking my shirt. I closed my eyes and begged for the pain to end. And just like that, it did. The creature had somehow vanished, but the wound on my arm was still gushing blood. I tried getting up, grabbing the sink for leverage. Once I was back on my feet, I was face to face with the creature again. I screamed again until I realized that I was looking into the bathroom mirror. I held up a hand to my face and as I did so, it started rapidly decaying down to the bone. I shrieked as my whole body and face decayed right before my eyes. I fell down to the floor and blacked out again.

I woke up again. This time I was back in my room at the castle. I instantly reached for my face and was relieved I felt that everything was smooth. I was sweating and my stomach felt sick, but otherwise I felt ok. There was a fresh wool bandage on my arm with a little dried blood on it, but not a lot. I had lost my shirt for what must have been the umpteenth time. I didn't feel the presence of the poison anymore, but I still couldn't feel anything in my left arm. I moved it around, wacked it against the bed, hit it against the wall, nothing registered. I also noticed my arm was much paler than the rest of my body. It creeped me out a little bit, but at least I was alive.

I heard my door open and saw Cupa and Melinda coming in with a tray full of food and potions. They nearly dropped their trays when they saw that I was sitting up in the bed. Cupa set her tray down on the nearest table and ran towards me. I was nearly thrown off the bed as she tackled me, knocking me back down onto the bed. She hugged me close and I found myself hugging back. I was glad to see her too, to see them both.

"Your alive! Oh thank Notch your alive!" Cupa exclaimed. Her hugged tightened, like if she let go I might disappear.

"Cupa! A…bit…too much!" I gasped out. I felt weak enough already and I didn't need another bear hug, though I appreciated the thought.

She got off me immediately with a small apology. Melinda smiled at me and I smiled back. She walked over and felt my head and cheeks.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"I feel fine other than my stomach is a bit sick. I can't feel my arm though. I can move it and such, but my nerves don't seem to react to touch, pain, or anything really." I wacked it against the side of the bed to prove my point.

Melinda nodded. "You were very lucky to have survived at all. I don't even know how you did, but your body seemed to have fought off Rot's poison. No human has ever done that before. No villager, animal, or mob ever survived it. You can thank your lucky stars that your arm is the _only_ thing you can't feel." She added in a smaller voice. "I'm glad you're alive though."

"Indeed." Came a voice from my right. I jumped a little. Man, I had to get used to Heroine showing up like that.

"So," I said after recovering from my initial shock. "What happened since I've been out? How long was I out?"

"You were out for a couple hours." Melinda answered.

"We won the challenge! The flag was really small and was hidden inside the cocoa bean you brought down. It was a good thing Melinda made a wool mattress to catch your fall. Otherwise you probably wouldn't be here right now. When the cocoa bean fell, it smashed open on the ground. Inside was a small purple flag with a black enderdragon head on it. We brought it back to our base and the tnt cannon sounded. We got you back to your room as fast as we could." She took a deep breath before she continued. "When we brought you back and laid you down on your bed, you started shaking. You tossed and turned as if you were having a bad dream. You screamed and puked on the floor after the first few minutes. Then, all of a sudden, you laid still, taking uneven breaths. We stayed in here for the next few hours before Lone came in and suggested that we all go get food and come back later. I thought to bring back food and potions just in case you were awake when we came back, though none of us expected you to live. Thankfully, you did."

It was a lot to take in. I was glad we won the challenge, but I was really surprised about the part with my dream. I guess some of my actions transgressed to reality from my dream. I shivered a bit as my mind flashed back to what I experienced. I hoped I'd never have a dream like that again. My mind flashed back to Rot after going through my dream.

"What about Rot? Is he…dead?" I asked.

"Yes, and no." Heroine answered. "Rot was killed by Cupa, back I imagine he will respawn before the night is over. Every creature in minecraft can die, but they all respawn sooner or later. Normal mobs like skeletons and creepers respawn quickly, in a matter of minutes. Human mobs will take hours to respawn. We, the princesses, take as long as a day to respawn once we are killed."

Which meant that when Rot respawned he was going to be a hell of a lot angrier with me. Great.

"We should leave and let Zyeke rest." Melinda said. "We have to prepare for the next event tomorrow anyway."

Heroine nodded and just teleported away. Melinda headed to the door, but Cupa didn't follow.

"I'd like to stay. If Zyeke doesn't mind." Cupa said as she looked at me.

"Not at all. I'll be fine. Thank you Melinda, for saving me I mean." I said.

She gave me a small smile and walked out of the room. Cupa grabbed the trays off the table beside the bed and sat next to me.

"I don't think I can stomach anything solid." I said uncertainly.

"That's ok. That's what we thought as well. We just brought some mushroom soup. Can you…eat on your own?" Cupa asked.

I chuckled a bit and said yes. I took the wooden bowl and spoon from her. The mushroom soup had a weird pink colored broth to it and was decorated with red and gray mushrooms. I took a sip. It was actually pretty good. It tasted a lot better than it looked. I finished the whole bowl in a few minutes. I felt a little better now that I had some food in me. Cupa uncorked a potion of healing and handed it to me. I thanked her and drank it. It had a sweet cherry taste to it. I placed the empty glass bottle on the tray.

"So, what's the next event?" I asked Cupa

She seemed surprised that I would ask such a question, considering the circumstances, but she did answer me. "The next event will be a fight between the teams. Each team will select one person from the team to fight against the opposing team's player. We are going to be fighting team 2 and they have selected Hilda as their team player. We haven't made the decision yet, but considering that Hilda can take any of our abilities and use them as her own, it will be a tough choice." She said.

"Well I better get better then so I can fight, shouldn't I?" I said.

"What! You are in no condition to fight! You just barely survived Rot and now you want to face Hilda? Are you _trying_ to get yourself killed?"

"Cupa, I'm the best choice and I think everyone knows that. I don't have any powers Hilda can manipulate, which will make it harder for her. Plus, the healing potion you gave me should make me feel normal tomorrow. I can be ready for it." I said.

"No! It's too dangerous! I will not allow you to risk your life a second time. Not after you…almost died." She ended her sentence in a whisper.

I hadn't realized until that moment how much Cupa cared for me. Those last few words whispered out showed all the emotions she had felt. Scared, worried, heartbroken. She started to cry silently. I also hadn't realized how much I cared for Cupa until that point either. I had felt pangs of emotion with her before. At the restaurant and when she surprised me in my room, but I never really analyzed those emotions until now. She was also the only princess that I really couldn't stand to see cry. I lifted her head with my right hand, the one I could feel, and wiped her tears away with my thumb.

"Remember what I said at the base? When you both had come back from the mansion?" I asked.

She sniffled and nodded.

"I meant it then, and I mean it now. Don't count me out just yet. I can and will live. More than that, I'll win. I promised." I said with a smile. Then, I leaned in and kissed Cupa. It was the first time I had made a move on a girl I really liked and I gotta admit, I was nervous as hell as I kissed her. Would she accept me? Had I misinterpreted her feelings? She was surprised at my sudden action, but then she kissed back. We held that kiss for almost a half a minute before we had to take a breath for air. We were about to kiss again when I heard the doorknob turn. I quickly turned sideways and put myself in a sitting position on the side of the bed.

Melinda had come back to check on us and I stood up to meet her.

"I asked Cupa about the next event. I know Hilda has been chosen as our opponent. I know our team hasn't chosen a player yet. I'm in."

**Good? Leave a review if you like this chapter! Also, if your new, I hope you've enjoyed the story so far and be sure to follow and favorite, but most all reviews is what I would like. Keeps me encouraged. Thanks to all who have left a review and for all your support. What does this battle mean for Zyeke? Stay tuned for chapter 9. Until next time.**


	9. New Ally

Chapter 9

Melinda stared at me dumbfounded for a few seconds before feverishly denying that I participate in the arena battle. I argued with her that I was the best choice. I couldn't have any powers manipulated, I was feeling a lot better, and she wouldn't listen to me. That was when Heroine showed up. I don't know how, but she must have overheard our conversation because she started defending my choice. We must have argued on for another twenty minutes before Melinda gave up and stormed out of the room. I felt a little bad for upsetting her, but then again, this wasn't her choice. It was for the good of the team.

Heroine turned to me. "Are you sure you're ready for this?" She asked. It was the first time I had heard her actually express some sort of concern.

I looked at her, then at Cupa. They were all worried about me. I couldn't let them know that I really wasn't sure. "Yeah. I'll be ready for it."

She nodded and actually walked to the door. I was wondering why she didn't just teleport away like she was so keen to do, when she asked Cupa to come with her. Cupa hesitated a bit, but left when I told her I'd see her at dinner. I went to the bathroom, deciding I wanted a nice hot bath. I pushed the button and got in. The water was just a pleasurable as the first time I took a bath. My body loosened and I felt totally at peace. The sickness in my stomach was gone now too. Nothing like a hot bath and a healing potion to cure your ailments.

When I got out of the tub and dried myself, I looked in the mirror. My skin was a little tan, but my whole left arm was deathly pale. It looked just like Rot's skin. The idea sickened me that I could resemble anything close to him. How was I going to explain this when I arrived back home? If I ever get there. I shook the thought out of my head. I left the bathroom and found that the blue pants and black shirt I made the other day were washed and folded on top of a chest. I put them on, grateful to finally feel clean again, though it probably wouldn't last.

I looked at my watch and saw that I still had some time before dinner, about two hours worth. I decided I should go for a walk around the castle. The sun would feel good in the courtyard. I exited my room and headed towards the door that would lead me to the entrance of the castle and ultimately, to the courtyard.

"Zyeke!" I heard someone shout. This voice was new.

I turned around to see Inksabella in a two piece blue bikini running towards me. Her skin was naturally pale and it looked like there was water dripping down her skin. It left small spots on the red carpet and walls as she ran. _I wonder what she wants._ She stopped in front of me, out of breath. She was panting heavily when she looked up at me with sapphire eyes.

"What's up?" I asked nonchalantly.

"I need to speak with you…in private if you don't mind." She said.

"Sure. I was just heading to the courtyard for a walk. You don't mind walking and talking do you?" I asked.

She shook her head and I opened the door for her. She walked through with a smile and I followed. We descended the huge staircase and went out the archway that led to the courtyard. It was just as beautiful as always. The sun shone on the flowers and made shadows from the trees. A slight breeze was in the air, making the weather pleasant, but not too hot. Perfect day for a walk.

"So, what did you want to talk with me about?" I asked Inksabella.

"Are you angry with me?" She asked. It wasn't a complete surprise that she asked this. She did help Rot do what he did, though I don't think she knew that he would bite me.

"Maybe a little. I'm not really sure. I don't think that you meant for what happened to happen." I answered truthfully.

She looked towards the ground in shame. "I'm sorry. When I saw you raise your weapon, I didn't want our team to be short a teammate, giving you an advantage. So I…stopped you. Cupa then started attacking me faster and harder than I've known her to. I had to use all of my tentacles just to keep from injured. When I heard your yell and saw Rot bite into your arm, I let my guard down. Cupa used my hesitation to knock me to the floor. It was a pretty hard hit and I remember seeing black spots. But, in between them, I saw Cupa unleash her wrath on Rot. The last thing I saw was you clutching your arm before I blacked out. I'm so sorry." She said.

I could tell she was upset about what happened. I had to find some way to reassure her. "It's alright Inksabella. I'm ok now. Well, kind of. I'm alive anyway." I said with a chuckle, trying to make light of the situation. Thankfully, I got a small giggle out of her. That was good at least.

We walked and talked for a little longer. I found that Inksabella was a really nice person to be around. When I asked her if she had any hobbies, she said she had a few but that her favorite one was swimming. She told me that since she was, in essence, a squid, she could swim at speeds close to a thousand blocks a minute. When she asked about my favorite hobby, I told her it was martial arts. I explained all about the art that I knew and how back in my world we would go to dojos to practice techniques and sparring. She seemed quite interested in the subject and asked if I could maybe teach her. I politely told her no, as I wasn't fit to teach the art because I was not a black belt.

When we arrived back at the archway at the entrance of the castle, Inksabella said she should go find her team and check in with them. We said goodbye to each other and she left to go back to the bedrooms. It was good to know that most of the princesses were kind at heart. I was about to go back up to my room to get ready for dinner, when I heard footsteps coming down the hallway to my right.

A second later a man dressed almost entirely in black rounded the corner. Was he on fire? No, it was just a dye. Were they glowing? He was moving incredibly fast and was on a collision course with me! He stopped in front of me and skid to a stop.

"Help me! I'm being chased! I need a place to hide!" He said

I heard more footsteps and shouting coming from the corridor. Was this guy a thief? What would there be to steal here? I glanced at him again and saw that he had a human face! _Another human? Is it possible?_ I nodded and told him to follow me.

I sprinted up the stairs to the bedroom hallway and threw the door open. The man was right behind me. He didn't seem to be making a sound as he ran. We stopped in front of my door and I practically pushed him inside. I closed the door behind me just in time. The hallway door opened, revealing six or seven human skeleton mobs, all armed. I put on my best quizzical face I had. I hoped it was convincing.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"We are in pursuit of a man in black. He is a thief and must be caught. Have you seen him come this way?"

A thief? Was he really? My mind was telling me that I should turn him in, but my gut feeling disagreed. If I learned anything in the past few days, it was to go with my gut. "No, I haven't seen anyone come down this way. I'm sorry. I hope you find him." I said before I opened the door and stepped inside. I heard receding footsteps shortly after. The man in black was poised by the door, ready to strike. He relaxed a little when he saw me enter alone.

We both just looked at each other for a moment, neither one of us really trusting the other. I took the time to size him up. He wore jet black pants, shirt, and jacket with black hiking boots. He was white. His ankle and cuffs were decorated with a flaming design that glowed slightly. There was a knife attached to his shirt sleeve and who knows how many weapons he had hidden in that jacket. I could see his eyes sizing me up like I was doing to him.

I broke the silence. "I'm Zyeke." I said and held out my hand.

He took it cautiously. "MT." He said. "Thanks for the save by the way."

"Don't thank me yet. I'm still a little wary. Those human mobs were calling you a thief. Is it true? And if so, what did you steal and why?"

He paused and seemed to be choosing his words very carefully. "It is true, I am a thief, but not a bad one. I steal from the…bad people. What I stole wasn't any object. It was information. Information concerning you Zyeke. I overheard something I shouldn't have."

This struck a chord with me. What information and why was it so important that whoever had it was willing to send a squad of human mobs to capture anyone who found out? And how did it concern me?

"What was it? What happened?" I asked.

"Well, it all started when I stumbled upon this castle while on a mining trip. I was astonished and I wanted to check it out. Getting past the guards was easy enough and soon I started exploring. I past by a wooden door in one of the hallways. I heard muffled voices on the other side. It sounded like an argument and being the curious person I am, I opened the door a crack. This is what I heard."

"…This is an outrage! These games are one our most honored traditions! I will not have any tampering allowed while I am in charge!"

"Maybe not your highness, but it is very important that Zyeke should succeed. It is essential to my plan. Without him, we shall never…Someone is listening."

"Before I knew what was happening, the door was blown off its hinges and I was thrown on the ground. When I got back up, I was barely able to dodge any arrow fired from inside the room. I took off running. You know the rest." He finished.

I tried to process this new found information. The person who was called "your highness" must have been the skeleton king. I had a few guesses as to who the second person was. My first guess was Herobrine, but it could be someone else I didn't know about. It didn't make a lot of sense though. Why would Herobrine or whoever was talking to the skeleton king want me to win? Why take the trouble to transport me from earth to this world just make me win these games. Maybe they were just doing it for entertainment purposes? No, that couldn't be it. That was too shallow. There had to be a bigger picture here that I wasn't seeing.

"Was that all?" I asked.

He nodded. I sighed. It seemed every day just gets more confusing around here. I sat down on the bed and pulled himself up a chair.

"So, what's your story?" MT asked me.

I told him the short version of how I got here and was forced into these games. I described the capture the flag challenge and how my team won. I left out the part about Rot though. Even though he provided me with the information he acquired, I wasn't completely sure I could trust him yet. He raised his brows when I got to the part about the enderman encounter at the village.

"D*** endermen. I've only known one that was kind in my life. He's passed on now though." He said.

"What's your story?" I asked him.

"Not much to tell. I was born in a village that was destroyed by mobs. I would have died along with everyone else had it not been for a kind hearted enderman. He took me in and raised me as his own. We traveled a lot, never settling down in one place for too long. Shortly after I turned 16, he passed on. Been on my own ever since."

"Sounds lonely." I commented.

He shrugged. "It's not all bad. I tamed some wolves when I came across a snow biome and they kept me company. They're at my house right now. A good hundred or so blocks away. They should have enough food and water to last them a day or two, but not much longer than that. I need to get out of here before I'm discovered. It was good meeting you Zyeke." He said as he stood up.

He started heading to the door. I jumped up and put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. I decided that I could at least trust him a little bit. "Hang on. You can't just waltz out here. I don't care how stealthy you may be, the whole castle's probably going to be looking for you. I think I can help you."

I went to the chest by the kitchen that held all the potion ingredients. I grabbed the stuff to make three potions of invisibility extended. After a minute or so of mixing, the potion glasses turned an almost translucent white. I handed them to MT. "Take the door we came in out to the main entrance. Go down the stairs and out through the courtyard. Hopefully the front gate hasn't been closed off. If it has, just come back to this room. If I'm not here, then just wait here. I'll be back sooner or later. Got it?"

He nodded. "Thanks. I owe you one." He drank the potions and disappeared in front of my eyes. I moved to the door to open it for him so that just in case someone was coming down the hallway, they wouldn't see a door opening by itself. Thankfully, there was no one. MT said another quiet thank you and left. He still didn't make a sound as he walked. Or maybe he was running. I don't know, but his silence and his invisibility should keep the guards off him. I said a silent prayer for his safe journey back to his home.

I glanced at my watch and noticed that it was getting close to six thirty in human time. I figured my teammates were at the cafeteria, so I closed my door and started walking down the hall.

"Hey, did you hear? They say a thief got into the castle." Katie said.

"No way! I hope they catch him soon. There's nothing I hate more than a thief." Lone said.

We were all sitting at our table in the cafeteria/restaurant. News had spread that a thief had infiltrated the castle. The good news was that there was no news that he had been caught. I hope that meant that MT had managed to get back to his home. I didn't like that the princesses were so quick to judge based on what they heard. I always try to look at the whole story before I make any judgments on anyone. Jumping to conclusions usually only messes things up. Much like what happened between me and Cupa when she thought I did something to Skelly. I pushed the thought away. It was best not to look back on bad things.

"Zyeke, what do you think?" Katie asked.

I was so lost up in my own thoughts, I hadn't paid attention to what Katie was saying. "I'm sorry. I sort of spaced out. What were you saying?"

"The thief. What do you think about it?" She asked intently.

"I think I'd like to hear what he would have to say before I did anything if I encountered him. It's best to listen to both sides of the story before drawing a conclusion." I answered honestly. Which is exactly what I did when I met MT, and so far, it hasn't come back to bite me in the a**. I glanced at Cupa when I finished, sharing a silent joke. She blushed and turned her head slightly. I chuckled.

"Perhaps that would be wise." Lone contemplated.

"Yeah, I guess that's the right thing to do. Hey…" Katie stopped in mid-sentence and looked over my shoulder. I turned around to see Hilda a few steps away. I stood up, again to be polite and to book it if I needed to.

Hilda dressed very similar to Skelly, but then I guess that makes sense because they are both skeleton princesses. She wore a dark wither skeleton cap that covered some of her long dark hair. She wore a black vest that covered what it was supposed to. No, I will never stop finding substitutes to saying the word boob, get used to it. She also wore a short black skirt and black hiking boots. A bow and quiver hung on her back. Her eyes were tinted gray and she wore long black gloves on her hands.

"So, you're to be my opponent tomorrow." It wasn't really a question. We all knew the answer.

"Yes. And I don't think we've been properly introduced." I held out my hand. "Zyeke."

She took it. "Hilda. I must say that it was definitely strategic to select you instead of any of your other teamates. But do not think that I will go easy. I want that enderpearl just as much as you do. Also, the new added bonus to winning the fight will be mine to enjoy as well." She said with a coy smile.

"Added Bonus?" I asked, confused.

"Whoever wins their individual fight, their team will have ownership of said person for 24 hours human time. I will make sure to thoroughly enjoy that time with you Zyeke." She said seductively.

I laughed. This threw her off, as I thought it would, but that wasn't the only reason I was laughing. I just thought that if only my friends could see me now. Being chased by all these girls, the looks on their faces just popped into my mind. I found the whole situation ironic and hilarious.

"What's so funny?" Hilda asked.

I just realized that it could have been taken as an insult towards her, like I was laughing at her. "I'm sorry. I was just thinking about friends from my home that's all. I wasn't trying to insult you in any way. I wish you luck, but I won't go down easily either. I plan on winning."

"We shall see. Oh, one more thing, I talked to Andr. She isn't very happy that she lost, but she told me to tell you that she intends to uphold her agreement with you. She will no longer speak to you or approach you in any way." Hilda said.

Man, she took 'leave me alone' way past the point it was supposed to mean. "That's not quite what I meant when I made that deal. I'll have to talk with her later, but thanks for letting me know." I said.

"Until tomorrow. Goodnight Zyeke." She walked out of the restaurant.

I sighed and sat down.

"What was that about?" Cupa asked with a tiny bit of edge in her voice.

I told the group what happened the night before the capture the flag event. Andr, unexpected visit, the fight, then the deal I made with her. As I went through my story, the princesses started getting angry looks in their eyes. I wasn't sure if they were directed at me or Andr. I quickly told them that it was no big deal and that I would just go talk her later. They all relaxed after I told them that.

"Looks like you won't have to." Melinda said.

I heard a small _woop_ and Andr appeared right next to my chair. I nearly toppled over in my chair. I stood up again.

"Is it ok for me to look you in the eyes?" I asked without looking up.

"Yes. I heard you wanted to talk." She replied.

I looked up at her face. It was as hard as stone. It almost looked like she was wearing a mask of sorts, not letting any emotion show on her face. "Yeah, but I'd rather discuss it in private." I said.

"Ok." Before I had time to react, she grabbed my hand and teleported. One second, I was standing by my chair in the cafeteria, the next I was in a room that was decorated much the End. I don't know how she managed it, but she managed to make her walls and ceiling look exactly the night sky in the end. Endstone covered much of the floor, only being disrupted by a few carpets and furniture. There was even a tiny model of an Obsidian tower with a miniature end crystal on it. It was a pretty spectacular bedroom.

My head felt a little light and my body felt queasy. Must be the effects from teleporting. I guess Andr's body was immune to it because she showed no signs of fatigue. It made since. She was an enderwoman after all. I sat down on her bed and waited until the effects wore off. It only took a minute. She sat next to me, still wearing that invisible mask on her face.

We sat in silence for a few moments while I thought of what to say. "Listen Andr, I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way. When I said 'leave me alone' I didn't mean break off all possible contact with me. I just think maybe we should just be friends." I finshed.

I was never the best with words, but I hoped that they had some kind of impact on Andr. I waited.

"…Ok." She finally said. Her invisible mask finally fell off. I was glad. "I can wait. You'll come to like me eventually."

I imagined myself beating my head against a wall. Did she hear anything I just said? She grabbed my hand again and teleported me back to the table where my friends were sitting. Good thing I was next to a chair, because I pretty much fell into it. My head felt light again, a little worse this time. It would fade in a minute though. I heard another _woop_ and she was gone.

Everyone asked how it went and I told them that nothing had changed except now we were talking again. I suppose that was good at least. I didn't want anyone holding a grudge against me. I excused myself from the table. I had had enough excitement for one night. I said goodnight to everyone and exited the restaurant.

I opened the door to my room. After switching the lights on, I was surprised to see MT sitting in a chair by the table.

"Was the way blocked?" I asked him.

"They burned it." He replied.

"What?"

He turned to me and I could see the frustration and anger in his eyes. "They burned my house! Skeletons. Everything I own, gone. I just barely had enough time to go in and save them before it collapsed."

I was about to ask who, when five young wolves burst out from underneath the bed. They all came up to me and growled. MT told them no in a stern voice and they stopped. Now, they all sniffed my hand, remembering my scent. Almost immediately they all wanted attention now that MT had apparently given me the 'A OK'. I petted all of them while MT told me what happened.

He had gotten out of the castle and back to his home in the snow biome just in time to see a group of skeleton human mobs setting fire to his log cabin. He told me he fought them, but he didn't kill any of them. He ran inside fast enough to get his dogs out, but before he could go back in to gather his belongings, the house collapsed. I could tell it was hurting him to say this and I offered what little comfort I could. I told him he could stay here for as long as he needed to. He thanked me and said he'd crash on the couch. I was about to ask him what couch when he pointed to a black wool couch behind me. I guess he made it with the wool from the bathroom.

_Poor guy. How could things like this happen to people? _I wondered. I don't know why, but I was suddenly exhausted. Maybe another one of the teleporting effects? I tossed MT a couple of pillows. He caught them with ease and settled down on the couch. I flopped onto the bed and closed my eyes, knowing tomorrow was going to be a tough day.

**Hey everyone! Hope you all enjoyed chapter 9! I would like to first say that all the credit for the OC, MT goes to Mr. Floodwaters and I thank him for letting me use him as an OC for my story. As always leave a review and follow and favorite if you haven't already. Until next time!**


	10. Battle of Bones

Chapter 10

I awoke in my bedroom for the second time. It started the same way again. My room was just as I left it. The only difference was that this time I _knew_. The moment I stepped outside, I would see blood, then…I shuddered. I ran to my bedroom door and locked it. I wasn't going through it a second time! I went back and sat on my bed, waiting for the dream to end. The worst part about a nightmare is knowing you're in one. Suddenly, there was a pounding at my door. I was rapid and desperate pounding.

"Zyeke! Open up! Please, the zombie's going to get me!"

It was Cupa! I bolted back to the door and fumbled with the lock. The minute I unlocked it and pulled it open, I saw Cupa get tackled by the zombified me. He started tearing at her hip with his teeth. Her screams were horrible! I wanted to stop it, but I couldn't move! Some force was making me stay exactly in that position, with the door open with one hand! Cupa's screams intensified and she pleaded for me to help her as the monster tore into her chest. I started screaming her name and felt tears come to my eyes.

Only when she fell silent, did the zombie me turn its sights on me. He tackled me down to the floor again and bit into my left arm in exactly the same spot as it had before. The pain was worse this time. I screamed, in pain, anger, and sadness. I didn't save Cupa. She was dead because of me! I blinked and just like that, the zombie me was gone and I crawled over to where Cupa laid. Her chest was torn open and a pool of blood flowed out from underneath her. She stared towards the ceiling with blank, dead eyes.

I clutched her head and pulled her body close to mine. I wept and caressed her blood-soaked orange hair. Then, I felt breath on my neck. She was still living! I lowered her down a bit so I could look into her eyes. They went wildly around the room for a second before settling on me. She opened her mouth like she was trying to speak, but all that came out was a moan. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, her head shot up to my neck. She bit down hard. I felt a new pain. A sense of burning throughout my entire body. It felt like I was being burned internally by a raging fire. My body started decaying rapidly and the last thing I heard were my screams.

I woke up again, sweating this time. MT was up, looking at me like I was nuts. I couldn't blame him. The nightmare had been more intense then last night.

"You alright man?" He asked.

"I don't know. That's the second night in a row I've had a nightmare. Did I wake you?"

"Wake me? I'm surprised the whole castle isn't in this room to see what was going on. Man, you screamed like something was killing you."

I sighed. "Sorry MT."

He held up his hands, "No big deal"

I walked over to the bathroom and splashed my face with cold water. I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked normal enough. My left arm was still pale while the rest of my body had color. I raised my left hand and placed it on the glass mirror. I felt nothing. I only felt my hand stop. I didn't feel the surface or temperature of the mirror at all. I placed my right hand on it and felt the smooth, cool surface. It wasn't until then that I finally realized, with complete clarity, that part of my body was really dead. I touched my left hand with my right. It was cold. No warmth radiated from it, no life. What would have happened if I hadn't fought off the poison?

There was a knock on my door. I walked out of the bathroom to see MT slide himself underneath the bed with the wolves. They started yipping, but were silenced immediately. The person knocked at the door again. "I'm coming, hang on please." I called. I walked to the bed and draped down the blanket, covering MT and the dogs. I opened the door to see Cupa standing at the door. My mind almost sucked me back through my dream, but put a clamp on my thoughts.

"Good morning Zyeke! Are you ok?" she asked.

I can't imagine I looked very good at the moment, I was still feeling the after effects of the bad dream. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't sleep very well."

"Hey, you got some time before the event. Want to get some breakfast?" I heard small growling coming from inside the room. I think Cupa heard it too. "What was that?"

"Uh, that was my stomach. Sorry, I must be really hungry." I said as I produced a fake chuckle. "Just give me a sec to change and grab my things and I'll be right out." She smiled and I closed the door.

I headed back to the bed and grabbed my staff. I bent down and lifted up the covers. "MT, I have to do another event. There is some Iron in the chest by the kitchen see if you can't craft a pickax and try and dig out a room beneath this one. I don't know if there is anything beneath us or not, but it's worth a shot to try. That way if anyone comes in here, you'll be hidden. I'm going to try and talk to the king later and see if I can't convince him you're not a thief. I know it's a shaky plan, but it's all I've got right now." He nodded and I let the cover drape back over the bed. I quickly made another set of blue pants and a black shirt and joined Cupa outside. We walked to the cafeteria.

"I thought you were hungry?" Cupa said as I picked at my steak and eggs. She had already demolished her plate.

"I am hungry. I just don't have an appetite. I'm sorry." I said.

"Zyeke? What's wrong?" She asked. She look at me with caring eyes.

I contemplated telling her about my nightmares, about what I was afraid of. I had no guarantee, after all, that the poison had left my body and I wasn't going to become a shell of my former self. My body could have only fought off most of the poison. Maybe it was still flowing through my body, lying dormant, waiting for the opportune moment to strike again. What if one day I woke up a monster? What if I was near Cupa when it happened?

She placed her hand on mine. I smiled at her. I overlapped my hand and gave a little squeeze. "I…just had a bad nightmare. That's all. But you've made me feel a lot better. Thanks Cupa." I said.

I started eating my eggs. I still wasn't that hungry, but I knew I would need the energy for the coming battle. I ate some of the steak, but not all of it. Cupa looked much happier now that I ate and I was honestly feeling a little better. Whether it was because of the food or Cupa, I didn't know. Probably Cupa.

A skeleton human mob burst through the restaurant doors and came straight to our table. She a regular gray shirt with black shorts and was carrying a piece of paper in her hands. She gave the paper too me. I thanked her. She nodded and took off again. I read the paper and it was exactly what I expected it was. It was time to go to the courtyard again. A waitress took our plates and we left.

We were the last to arrive. All the other princesses were at the courtyard, but the five selected participants were standing near the fountain. I said a short goodbye to Cupa before going to join them. The other participants chosen from the other teams were Lone, Andr, and Rosa. Wait, there were only five participants? That was an odd number of fighters. How was this going to work?

"May I have your attention please?" The king's loud voice erupted throughout the courtyard. I had yet to figure out how he was projection his voice so clearly without actually being present, but I just shrugged it off. Doesn't matter right now anyway. "Teleportation to the arena will begin shortly. Prepare yourself!"

As before, the teleportation was instant. The beautiful scene of flowers and shrubberies soon gave way to a barren patch of dirt. Around us was a coliseum-like structure. The coliseum was made of gray stone and surrounded the patch of dirt we were all standing on. The seats were carved out of the stone and red cushions were placed to add a little comfort. The stands quickly filled up with human mobs from all kinds of different minecraft mobs. Skeletons, creepers, endermen, slimes, villagers, you name it. There were human mobs from just about every one. There were few villager human mobs I noticed. I guess they really were rare. The other four participants were standing at specific intervals in the dirt circle.

"As you all may have figured out, we have an uneven amount of participants. Therefore, one of the matches will be a two versus one match. Lone, princess of the wolves, has decided that she will be fighting alongside Hilda against Zyeke!" The crowd went wild and my jaw dropped.

Lone was fighting _against_ me? That didn't make any sense. I know we had only been friends for a couple days, but still. Why had she chosen to fight alongside Hilda against me?

"Princess Andr and Princess Rosa will be the first combatants. Good luck to you all."

Two human mob skeletons escorted Lone, Hilda, and I from the arena circle. We were led down a series of complex stone hallways until we reached one with two doors. Lone and Hilda went through the left door, while the human mobs escorted me through the right door. They led me down a couple hallways and deposited me in a small dark room. It was all made of stone with only a chair and a torch giving off light. There was another Iron door other than the one we entered in, but something told me I didn't want to go through it. The two human mobs left out the door we came in and I was alone. I sat down in the chair and waited.

I didn't understand. Lone was my friend, why was she aligning herself with Hilda? Had she only been pretending? Had Hilda somehow blackmailed her? I guess it really didn't matter at the moment. Sooner or later, I would have to fight _both_ of them. I guess it was time to stop holding back.

I didn't know how much time had passed. My internal clock said that I'd be in here for maybe twenty minutes, but it felt much longer. I heard a loud creaking noise and saw that the iron door was opening slowly. That must be for me. I got up walked through. An iron grated gate was my only source of light at the end of a long hallway. It started slowly lifting up as I approached.

"And now introducing, fighting for team 1, Zyeke."

There was a small amount of enthusiasm from the crowd, but that was it. _Gee, thanks a lot guys. Very encouraging._

"And, fighting for team 2 and team 3, Hilda and Lone!"

Their gate started slowly rising and they stepped out into the dirt ring. The crowd went absolutely nuts. They had already decided who was going to win apparently. Great!

"The match will begin at the sound of the tnt cannon. Ready…"

I did a quick bow to my opponents. A habit I had acquired from martial arts; bowing shows respect towards your opponents.

"Fight!" The tnt cannon sounded.

Lone leapt into action immediately. She make a weird motion with her hands and a green ball appeared. I jumped to the side as she released a small concentrated blast to where I was standing. It hit the arena walls and left a big black mark. Hilda crouched down to the ground and clenched her hands. She thrust her hand up and six wither skeletons burst out of the ground, each wielding a stone sword. They locked eyes with me and started charging towards me. I noticed that Lone didn't try to send another blast. She must not have wanted to harm Hilda's wither skeletons. That was my opening.

I charged to meet the skeletons. The first one in the group swung his sword in a horizontal arc. Nobody was expecting what came next.

I jumped onto the wither skeleton's shoulder and push off, smashing him onto the ground. I leapt from to skeleton, making my way closer to Hilda. She was my target. I launched off the sixth skeleton and slammed into Hilda with a flying-side kick. She was knocked onto the ground. I disconnected one part of my staff from my sling and threw it at Lone, who was trying about to shoot another blast. She wasn't ready for it and it hit her head on. She flew back and hit the arena wall with a loud thud. I set my sights back on Hilda who was starting to get back up again. I twisted my body to perform a tornado roundhouse, but she blocked it as it was going to her head. I was about to rush Hilda, but the wither skeletons had gotten back up and were coming back for round two. I also saw a bright green light out of my peripheral vision. I jumped and rolled to the side just in time to avoid the largest green blast of energy I had ever seen. I was in front of Hilda and now that green blast hit her with full force.

The wither skeletons surrounded me. I dodged a horizontal slash from one and did a sweep to knock him back to the floor. I had to roll to dodge a sword slice that would have taken my head off! I elbowed one in his skeleton rib cage and backhanded him to the ground. He dropped his sword. I swiped it up to block another attack. I kicked the wither skeleton away and decapitated one that was trying to attack me from behind. I picked up another sword and quickly finished off the other four.

I looked back to Lone and Hilda. Lone was still blasting Hilda, but she looked like she was in pain and trying to pull away from the blast. The green beam turned black the closer it came to Hilda. She seemed to be _absorbing_ the blast.

"Hilda! Stop!" Lone cried out. She looked pale and was sweating and looked like she was about to faint. Almost like her life was being sucked away!

I threw the two stone swords at the blast, but they disintegrated upon contact. I pulled out the other part of my staff. Obsidian was hard as hell to break, I had to hope that this would stop the blast. Otherwise, Lone might end up gravely injured. Or worse. I wound up my arm and threw my second half of my staff as close to Hilda as I could. There was a small explosion, but the force of it reached me and knocked me to the ground. Hilda also flew back and Lone slumped to the ground.

I got off the ground shakily. Lone looked like she passed out. When Hilda got to her feet, I was a little frightened. She had a crazed look in her eyes, like someone who just got a lot of power and knew how to use it. She had a swirling black aura around her body. I could practically feel the energy from here!

She raised her hand and shot a black ball at me. I turned my body to try to dodge it, but it nicked my shirt. It tore a huge hole in my shirt upon contact. _Oh SH**!_ I started running towards the half of my staff that I threw at Lone. It had landed by the wall near Lone. Obsidian was the only thing I could count on to defend myself from these energy balls. Hilda sent a volley of balls in my direction. I jumped and used the wall as a pivot point to flip over the volley. I hit the ground in a roll and grabbed my staff in mid-roll. I used the momentum from the roll to boost me forward towards Hilda.

My other half lay near her. As I came closer, she pulled a stone sword from a sheath behind her back. She channeled the energy radiating from her into the sword, turning it black and extending it's length. She tried a horizontal slash to my stomach. Fortunately, it was a slow attack. I slid underneath the sword and did another sweep to knock Hilda to the floor. I grabbed my other half of the staff and connected them.

I charged Hilda with a downward strike. She blocked it with her sword. I twisted the staff to try for a strike to the ribs. She blocked. I kept twirling and doing multiple strikes with my staff, getting faster and faster as I went. A steady _clang_ could be heard everyone she blocked my staff. Eventually I got a hit on her and she staggered. I turned my staff and did an uppercut strike straight to her chin.

She actually grunted my first indication that she felt pain. I was getting to her and I knew it. She flipped in mid-air and landed back on her feet. She looked at me with rage so fierce, it could have punctured iron. With a yell, she swung her sword in a downward arc. A shadow slice of energy traveled from her sword and shot towards me. I held up my staff to block. It hit it so hard, my own staff knocked me in the face! I fell to the ground, but got back up immediately. I tasted blood on my lips.

She swung another shadow arc in my direction. I moved and it hit the wall with a _boom!_ There was a noticeably large crack in the stone. If I was hit full force with that, I'd be done for! I ran towards Hilda again. She readied her sword to swing another shadow arc. I disconnected my staff and threw one half just as she released her arc. It was perfect timing. The staff piece connected with the arc just a foot away or so from her. There was a tnt-like explosion and she let out a tiny yelp. I was on her before she could do much else.

I sent a punch to her stomach and struck her with the end of my other staff piece. She fell down to the ground. I snatched up my other staff piece and used the same technique I did with Andr. I drove both pieces into the dirt above her neck, trapping her. Her black aura was dissipating and she looked defeated. I looked her straight in the eyes.

"Surrender." I said.

She smiled a devilish smile and I noticed something black coming from her chest. I looked down to see that she had made another one of those black balls in her hand. I was too close to get away from it! I held up my left hand to block when she released it. It hit my chest area dead on. I flew back and hit the ground with a loud thud. I yelled out in pain. My left arm had taken the brunt of the blast, but my chest had taken some of the damage. My left arm looked like someone stuck one hundred knives in it. Blood soaked my arm and I could see a great many gashes and cuts. That wasn't what I felt though.

My stomach had sustained a pretty decent-sized gash. It didn't feel deep though, it just hurt! I tried to get back up to my feet, but the pain from my stomach put me right back on the ground. I pressed my right arm on it and applied pressure. I saw that Hilda had removed the staff pieces from the dirt and she was walking towards me. There was a large wound on her head and a few slashes on her chest, but she that didn't stop her advancement. I crawled backwards, trying to get away from her, but I already knew it was pointless. When she reached me, she kicked me right where my right arm was. My pain intensified as I rolled across the dirt surface. I stopped with my back facing her. She turned me over.

She held her hand, open palmed, next her chest. The black aura from before engulfed her hand and she slammed it onto my chest. I had just enough time to gasp before I felt my head going light. My arms and legs were starting to numb and I felt my energy slipping away from me. I was having trouble breathing. My head started getting light and black spots invaded my vision. I could still make out Hilda smiling devilishly as she stole my life away from me.

But then, her smile turned into a look of pure terror. She started screaming as if she were in some horrible pain. She removed her hand and I rolled on my side, wheezing and gasping for air. Hilda was on the ground and looked like she was having a stroke or heart attack. She was screaming and her body was undergoing so many convulsions, I couldn't tell where one stopped and another began. I turned my head; it was too painful to watch. After a minute or so, the screams stopped and silence draped across the arena.

Knowing, I probably would regret it, I turned to look at Hilda. Her body was twisted at odd angels and she had a look of shear pain and suffering frozen on her face. There was no doubt that she was dead. And I had been the cause.

I heard the iron gates open and I saw two groups of human mobs skeletons carrying what looked to be two crudely made stretchers. One group went over to Lone and carefully placed her in. They carried her back through the gate. The other group came to me and I was starting lose my vision again. The blood loss was starting to affect me. I didn't even feel the hands the lift me up and into the stretcher. I felt myself being carried, but soon I just felt like I was floating. Floating carelessly down a soothing river. I closed my eyes and soon that feeling went away too.

**And that's Chapter 10 for you! Sorry if it seemed like I took so long on this chapter. I have been **_**swamped**_** with school work and haven't had a lot of time to work on this. Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoyed! As always, make sure to follow, favorite, and above all, leave a review! Thank you all for your support! Until next time.**


	11. More Surprise Guests

Chapter 11

I didn't have another nightmare. When I awoke, I was back in my bedroom again. I moved to sit up, but my back disagreed with me and I flopped back onto the bed with a small groan. I looked to see that my stomach had been bandaged up. There was a light hue of red in the middle of the bandages where the gash was. I checked the rest of my body for any more wounds. I felt a bandage covering the left side of my forehead. It stung when I touched it. Must be a cut or scrape.

My entire left arm was bandaged up to my shoulder. My forearm's bandages were a dark red color, but the shade lightened as the bandage went up my arm. That was good. At least on one part of my arm was seriously injured. I guess I should have been happy that I couldn't feel the injury itself, but it still felt creepy seeing all that blood and not feeling anything. It contradicted every logic about the human body, but then again, I wasn't exactly in a logical situation. I tried sitting up again. I was successful this time, but I quickly moved my back up against the bed frame to keep all the weight and stress off my core. My stomach was grateful.

I heard a clicking noise from underneath my bed. It sounded like a trapdoor. There was some quiet shuffling and MT popped out from under my bed. He looked me over, his eyes showing a trace of genuine concern.

"Hey." I said. "How was your day yesterday? Mine was a b***"

He chuckled a bit at my lame joke. "Not as bad as yours it seems. When you left, I got to work like you suggested. I decided to dig out an area underneath your bed since it could be easily hidden. It turns out that I could dig out a 12X16X5 space without coming near anyone else's bedroom or the floor below. I left a couple blocks of space to block out any sound. My dogs and I are comfortable enough. I would invite you to come see for yourself, but…you know." He gestured to my bandages. "What happened anyway?"

I told MT all about the mob arena. I told him about the thousands of human mobs that came to watch, the Roman Coliseum style and feel of the place, and the unpleasant surprise that I had to face two opponents instead of one. I described the battle as best I could. Hilda summoning wither skeletons, Lone's stray blast, Hilda's absorption of power, and the fight with her afterwards. I choked up when I got to the part about Hilda's death.

I couldn't make any sense of it before, but as I described it to MT, something in my brain clicked. Rot's poison was still flowing through my body. That must be it. The book said that Rot's poison was devastating to all mobs. It said it was lethal to humans, but somehow I managed to live. And I guess that every human mob technically speaking has a good amount of human DNA, otherwise they wouldn't look as human as they do. Maybe that was what was supposed to happen whenever Rot infected someone. It made me shiver just thinking about it.

"Da** man. Sounds like you went through some pretty serious crap." MT said. He paused. "You want a potion of regeneration?"

I cringed at the thought of what happened the last time I had one of those. Sure, I was healed pretty fast, but that came at a price. Were my injuries as serious as the first time I had one? I tried to guess at the amount of pain I'd feel, but gave up.

"Yeah, that's probably the best option." I said with a sigh.

MT nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. I could hear a clanging noise every so often, but otherwise, he was pretty quiet. He was quite the stealthy person. Then, I heard the last thing I wanted to hear. Someone knocked on the door and came in. It was Cupa. _Crap! Bad timing Cupa!_

"Zyeke! Your awake!" She came running toward my bed and unfortunately, MT had finished the potions.

"I got them…"

They both kind of stared at each other for a second before springing into action. MT dropped the potions on the floor, which surprisingly stayed intact, and reached into his jacket. Cupa already had a miniature tnt block in her hand and I saw a flash of silver in MTs'. I had to act now, or else someone was gonna get hurt. With as much energy as I could muster, I threw myself off the bed and put myself in between Cupa and MT. I stumbled a little bit, but I stayed upright and thrust my arms between them.

"Woah! Hold on! Everyone put your weapons away!"

They didn't listen, their eyes were locked with each other, but they did stop hands from throwing their weapons.

"Who's he?" Cupa asked, still ready to throw her tnt block. "Is he the thief that the castle guards have been searching for?" She spat with venom I never knew existed in Cupa.

MT was enraged. He opened his mouth to say something, but I spoke before him. "He's not a thief Cupa! Not a bad one anyway. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, please put your tnt block away." I said as calmly as I could.

She hesitated, but lowered her arm. MT lowered his knife he was holding. They were both still tense and ready to fight if need be. I explained MT's story to Cupa while MT picked up the potions and set them on the bed. The more I told Cupa about the story, the more she calmed down and relaxed. MT seemed to settle down a little as well once he saw Cupa's attitude change. Another crisis averted, for now.

"So, you said you steal from bad people, but I haven't heard of anyone that we'd consider bad in the area." She commented skeptically to MT.

"That was more when I was younger. There were a lot of rogue mobs back in my pre-teens that we would steal from and raid. I had little sympathy for them since they were revered by many minecraft passive mobs. Rogues like them would terrorize villages and travelers of all mobs. I stopped people like them and gave their goods back to those who had lost them that I could find. Sometimes, I couldn't find the original owners or, in some cases, they were already dead." He paused a moment before continuing. "There have been a lot less rogue mobs recently and I was able to actually settle down for a change. That is, until those skeleton guards burnt down my house." He clenched his fists and reached into his jacket pocket. "This is all I have left now."

He pulled out a folded piece of paper. When he opened it up to its full size, I saw that it was a painting of a younger MT with what looked to be a human mob of an enderman. He dwarfed the young MT and they looked almost nothing alike, but it was a touching painting all the same. They were standing hand in hand by a small oak tree in a forest biome.

"That was painted by a traveler we helped out when his goods were stolen by a rogue. I was ten then. And now it's the only thing I have left to remember my adopted father by." He folded it up and put it back into his jacket. "And now you know the whole story."

I hadn't realized that he may have had memories of his father in his home. All of it burned to the ground except for one single photo. Even Cupa looked sympathetic towards MT. now was probably the best time to ask.

"Cupa, I need you to keep this a secret. No one can know about MT, not yet anyway. Please."

She nodded. MT handed me a potion of regeneration. I uncorked it and downed it before I could think about it. I felt the gash on my stomach heat up and sizzle as the cells in my body multiplied rapidly to patch up my wound. I grunted a little. It wasn't as bad as the first time I had to drink the potion. I felt a slight sting on my head from where that was healing, but it was considerably smaller than my stomach. I took off the bandages after the pain became a numb throb. My gash was gone and my head wound had healed.

There was a question I was dreading to ask, but I needed answered. "How is Lone doing? And what happened to Hilda?"

"Lone has almost fully recovered after bed rest and a few potions of healing. She is still a little uncoordinated though. Her wounds weren't really physical, so we couldn't give her a potion of regeneration to heal her faster. Hilda has respawned and is somewhere in the castle. We are all going to see the skeleton king later today to see about the special reward we get for winning." She replied.

I was happy that Lone had almost fully recovered and I completely forgot that the princesses never really "died" here. Still, the suffrage of death was still something that picked at my brain. Even though I really had no control over the poison in my body and Hilda had acted of her own accord, I still had been involved in her death. I felt a tiny bit guilty about it.

"Wait, how long was I out?" I asked.

"Almost a full day."

D***! A whole day? I must have been pretty beat down.

"Zyeke," MT said, "I have something I need to show you. Follow me." He crawled back under the bed and I heard the trap door open underneath. Cupa shot me a confused look. I just shrugged and crawled under the bed.

MT had already gone down the trap door. There was a wooden ladder that went down for about fourteen blocks. I grabbed a rung and began my descent. I heard Cupa follow me and I tilted my head to look up at her. I saw a flash of lime green before darting my head back down. _You f***ing idiot! She doesn't wear shorts! _ She didn't seem to notice what happened and continued descending down the ladder, not really watching where I was. I scurried down as fast as I could, trying to stop my cheeks from blushing.

When I reached the ground, I surprised to see that MT had made a pretty good living area for himself. There was carpeting on the stone floor, a couple wooden chairs and a table, a cushioned living area for his dogs to sleep in, and a standard minecraft bed. What surprised me the most was that there were three _humans _sitting on the bed. Two of them looked related and the other one didn't look like he knew either one of them.

The one on the far left of the bed was a girl with light brown, almost chestnut hair with dyed in pink bangs worn wavy down to her midback. She had light green eyes and lightly tanned skin. She looked to be about 5'5, maybe 16 or 17, and very athletic. She wore a hot pink t-shirt that showed a black cat on some sort of dirt path. Her…feminine qualities were showing slightly. She was also wearing a light gray skirt that went past her knees and gray sneakers. She had a Japanese-looking sword strapped to her side. She was very pretty.

The one next to her was a boy who looked to be the same age and height as the girl beside him. He had dark brown hair worn long and shaggy. He had the same green eyes as the girl, but unlike her, he didn't look like he was a very athletic person and his skin was more pale than hers. He wore a dark green T-shirt saying "Watch your Dubstep" With a dark gray hoodie unzipped over top as well as loose dark gray jeans. He had black sneakers. I couldn't spot any weapons on him.

The third person on the right side of the bed was another boy who looked to be my age. He looked like he was an African American and had buzzed hair. He looked to be about 6 foot, a little shorter than me. He was well defined, but not quite as much as the girl. He was dressed in a white t-shirt and black jeans with black sneakers. A bow and quiver of arrows was strapped to his back. He looked back at me with hazel colored eyes. Cautious, but calm.

The boy and girl were talking amongst themselves, but stopped when they heard us enter.

"Oh boy! More people Ethan!" The girl said to the boy next to her.

"Katrina, we don't know if we can trust them yet." He whispered nervously to, presumably, his sister. I don't think he intended for that comment to be heard, but I didn't let him know I heard.

"Hello." I said to all of them. "I believe introductions are in order. My name is Zyeke Daniels. What are your names?" I asked.

"I'm Katrina!" The girl said in a chirpy voice.

"M..my name is Ethan. Ethan Shore. We're twins." He said while gesturing to his sister. He had a slight stutter to his words

"My name is Sullivan, but you can call me Sully." The African American said in a deep voice.

I shook hands with all of them. Well, all of them except Katrina, who flat out hugged me. "Nice to meet you!" She chirped. Man, she might have more energy than Cupa! I thought I might have caught a tiny look of jealousy on her face, but I couldn't really tell.

I then turned to MT. "How did you find these people?"

MT explained to me that after he had finished his room, he decided he wanted to go outside for a walk in the woods that were above the cavern. While walking, he heard screaming. It sounded male and he went to investigate. He said he saw Katrina and Ethan being attacked by a skeleton mob that had kept from burning by the shade of an oak tree. The skeleton had pinned the two down behind a tree, firing arrows rapidly to keep then situated in one spot as it moved closer. MT said he was about to intervene when a lone arrow struck the skeleton right in the skull and it crumpled to pieces on the floor. This is when Sully had stepped out from behind some shrubs and introduced himself to Katrina and Ethan. MT recognized Sully and explained that Sully had helped him establish his house in the nearby snow biome. He said he hadn't seen him since they burned down his house and thought he perished in the fire.

MT then offered to sneak them into the castle with some invisibility potions he had made to sneak out of the castle in the first place. And here they all were. MT would have talked with them some more, but then he heard the door to my room open and he told everyone to be quiet until they heard my door open and shut again. That's when MT came up to investigate.

"What a long story." I said. "That's pretty amazing." I looked to the twins. "How did you two get here?"

"We don't exactly know." Katrina responded. "We remember settling down for the night a little past midnight in our home in Kentucky and we woke up in this strange place."

"I told you Katrina, this is a game world called minecraft." Her brother corrected her.

"Whatever. Anyway, this we found a village full of people, but they were really strange and cube-like. We asked one of them if we could stay in a house for the night and they let us stay in a hut of some sort made from wood and cobblestone. Later that night, we were visited by a man with white pupils and he told us where we were and that he'd brought us here. Ethan freaked when he saw him." She taunted.

"Do you even know who that was? That was Herobrine! The most evil being in this whole game!" Ethan exclaimed.

"Anyway, I tried talking to him, but Ethan got defensive and tried to get the man to go away. He ended up against the wall, not being able to move. I got angry and tried to land a punch on the guy, but I soon joined my brother on the wall. He told us about this weird tournament or something we needed to join to get back to our world then left. I wanted to go, but Ethan disagreed with me, saying we shouldn't listen to anything the man with no eyes said. We left the next day and we were being attacked by a skeleton when we met Sully and your friend MT."

That was interesting. So Herobrine really had taken other people from Earth to minecraft. The questioned that really burned in my skull was, why?

"Ok. What about you Sully?" I asked.

"I came here much like the same way those two did. I had a similar encounter, but the man you call Herobrine told me I had time to train for the tournament Katrina mentioned. He gave me a map and book, but I lost them later that night to the weird creatures that room around at night. I did happen to get a bow from a skeleton and some arrows, which I used for hunting and such. I lived in a nomadic fashion until I found MT one day and we became good friends. He taught me basic information about the way this world works and I helped him with his house he was building in a "snow biome" as you call it. I was out hunting when I saw smoke coming from the direction of our home. I came back to ashes and thought MT was dead. I am glad I was wrong." He finished.

So, Sully must have been Herobrine's very first victim, then me, and finally Katrina and Ethan Shore. That means he brought four humans to minecraft, but why? What purpose did we serve? What was his plan? Cupa interrupted my thoughts by tapping me on the shoulder.

"We should go soon, we have to go see the skeleton king shortly. If we don't, people may start asking questions." She said.

I nodded, but then stopped mid-nod. I had a crazy idea, but if it worked, we could at least end the secrecy that we all would have to work to keep.

"We should all go." I announced. I got looks that implied that I had gone off the deep end. "Look, think of it like this. If we all keep hiding like this, someone is eventually going to find out about our group. The best plan for all of us right now, as much as we may not like it, is to play Herobrine's game. We'll all go to the skeleton king and I'll ask that we all be put onto a team together for the Monster games. He may not like the late entry, but I'm thinking that Herobrine wants us all together, so he'll probably sway the skeleton king to do as we ask. As a team, we can compete together and get back home without stressing all the time about being caught."

"Sounds a little like we're playing into the enemy's hand." MT commented.

"Maybe a little, yes, but what other choice do we have that can benefit all of us right now? I'm not saying we go along with everything Herobrine might have planned for us, but at least being together as a team, we'll be able to approach any situation thrown at us better than one of us could do alone. I don't know what Herobrine is really up to, but we'll work on trying to figure it out and find out how to stop whatever it is."

"I'm all for it!" Katrina exclaimed.

"I suppose it's only logical" MT said.

"If MT is with you, so am I." Sully said.

"I can't leave my sister to do this alone, so I'll come along too." Ethan said.

Everyone agreed and we followed Cupa back up to my bedroom and out the door.

"Who are these people that you have brought with you?" The skeleton king boomed. Ethan quivered a bit in his shoes. We had since entered the throne room with all the other princesses, who were all pretty surprised with the introduction of four new people. Especially since three out of the four were guys.

"Skeleton king, these are…friends of mine who I have met and wish to also participate in the games alongside me. Will you form a new team for us?" I asked in as confident of a voice as I could muster.

"State your names!" The king boomed.

"Katrina Shore!" Katrina yelled to the king in a playful way.

"MT" MT said confidently.

"Sullivan, but you can call me Sully." Sully said calmly.

"M..my name is E..Ethan Shore." Ethan stuttered. He sounded scared out of his wits!

"They look like they would make a good addition to the games, but I am afraid that they cannot join. The official day for contestants to register has already passed and I will not have…" The skeleton king stopped in mid-sentence.

The door to the throne room had opened and Herobrine stood near the back of the throne room. "You shall let them do as they ask. I have the consent of all the other kings and they have agreed that they would make a good enough addition to the games as to register late." Herobrine teleported to the skeleton king's hand and placed a piece of paper that was filled with black ink and a lot of signatures.

The skeleton king skimmed over the document and scrunched his eye sockets, if that was even possible, as he read. He seemed a bit frustrated, but eventually he handed the paper back to Herobrine with a nod. Herobrine smiled and then teleported out of the room.

"It seems that the other kings have allowed you to do as you ask. You four shall be put onto a team. You will be Team 6 and Cupa and Melinda will be re-directed to different teams. The next event will be what you humans call a parkour course. There will be consequences for the last two teams to complete the course. They will compete in another event and the loser shall be eliminated from the games. As for the special reward for the winners of the last tournament, Lone shall go to Team 6 to server them for a day as they see fit. Hilda shall go to the team Cupa and Melinda are re-directed to. Nothing life-threatening is to be allowed for the servants to do for their respected teams they are serving. That is all. The next event will be in a day's time. Dismissed."

That was it then. For better or for worse, we were in this together.

**And that's chapter 11 for you people! I hope you all have enjoyed and please be sure to follow, favorite, and review! Credit for the twin OCs goes to LuckLynx741 and the credit for Sully goes to BoatingTurtle. Thank you both for your awesome OCs and I hope I will try not to disappoint you with their usage. I will not be accepting any more OCs (wasn't really planning on having them, but you know, stuff happens). Anyway, I hope you all look forward to my next chapter! Until next time.**


	12. Pool Party

Chapter 12

It was official. We were now team 6. As soon as we exited the throne room, the princesses pounced on the newcomers, though mainly the men. The pounded them with questions and offers of dates. I had to hold back a laugh at the way Ethan was reacting to all this sudden attention. The poor guy already had a beet red face and he muttered out nervous responses. Sully dealt with it all rather calmly, politely passing up their offers. MT broke away from the princesses and just started walking straight toward the bedrooms. Unfortunately, he didn't make it very far when Jade laid a hand on his shoulder to stop him. The situation was absolutely hysterical to me since I had been in the same predicament not too long ago.

After many polite refusals and some pushing, we managed to get away from the princesses, accompanied by Lone who was to be our servant for the day. I was still a little wary about Lone, especially after what had happened in the arena. I could tell Lone was nervous and uncomfortable. She walked with her head hung low as she brought up the rear of our progression. We made if back to our room, where we all collapsed on the bed, chairs, or floor.

"Man, Zyeke. I don't know how you put up with that every day! That Magma Cube princess must have asked me to 'accompany' her to dinner a thousand times!" MT exclaimed.

"I agree. It's not always easy being calm and collected when you have a handful of women after you.' Sully commented.

"Poor Ethan was embarrassed out of his mind!" Katrina teased her brother. "I suppose it's not really his fault. He wasn't ever a very social person and he gets all shy around girls, especially pretty ones like the princesses."

"S..Shut up Katrina." Ethan stuttered to his sister, which just made her burst out laughing.

"Come on, give the guy a break." I said. "We've got bigger things to worry about. The next event is going to be a parkour course, so who here is good at parkour?" I asked.

Three out of the four raised their hands. Ethan's was the only one who didn't raise his.

"Well, I think I know where we can go to fix that!" I exclaimed.

Not twenty minutes later, we arrived at the training room I had found a couple days ago. The equipment didn't look like it had been used much recently, which was good for us. Everyone kind of split off to do their own exercises. I stayed with Ethan and was trying to get him to do push ups with me. MT was clobbering a punching bag, Sully was doing pull ups, and Katrina was lifting the twenty pound dumbbells. After about ten minutes, I was able to get Ethan to do three sets of push ups, ten a piece and got him to run a few laps around the space of the room. I was right beside him in every exercise, urging him on when he looked like he needed it.

Lone had disappeared and came back in a few minute with wet towels and water. She set them down on a small table and sat down in a corner without speaking. She was starting to worry me. I decided to let Ethan have a small break and I walked over to the corner Lone was in. She didn't meet my eyes until I sat down next to her. We kind of sat there for a few moments in awkward silence, knowing what needed to be talked about, but not wanting to bring it up. Eventually, I spoke.

"Lone, your starting to worry me with how down in the dumps you are. We need to talk about what's bothering you." I said, knowing full well what the problem was.

"I'm sorry. I made a terrible mistake and now I have ashamed myself and betrayed a friend. Why should I not be like this for the rest of my days?" She replied in a sad voice.

"Because, that's not what I want. You are my servant, and I command you not to be this way!" I said in my deepest, stupidest, voice I could manage. I got a chuckle out of her and a piece of the old Lone. "Seriously though, you need to cheer up. I don't know why you did what you did in the arena, but I don't think you meant it to turn out as it did. I won't pry, but if you want to tell me why, then I'll listen."

Lone heaved a heavy sigh. "It was selfish. My motives were dirty and my emotions clouded my judgment. I…I let Hilda talk me in to teaming up with her. She said that when we won, we'd…split you fifty-fifty. She would have you for half the day and I would have you the other half. The thought of having you to myself for half a day was…I'm sorry, it was disgraceful. I should have never…" She looked like she was holding back a sob.

I grabbed her hand. She looked at me with a kind of look you see in anime, where the person has their eyes open wide with water at the rim of their eyes. "Lone, I understand. We humans have these feelings too and sometimes we make mistakes like you have, but its ok. Nobody's perfect. I forgive you for what you did. All I ask is that you try not to let it happen again. And that you cheer up." I said with a smile.

Lone smiled and wiped a tear from her eye. "Thank you Zyeke. You truly are a kind person." She handed me a wet towel. I took it gratefully and applied the cloth to my forehead. The blessed feeling of cool water dripping down my face was heavenly. I grabbed the rest of the towels and distributed them to the rest of the team. Lone passed out glasses of water, but now she looked more like her usual happy self. I was glad.

After the nice break, we went back to our workout routines. Ethan looked tired, but he still pressed on. He had the heart of a champ. MT had moved on to throwing knives at a makeshift wool target. Each one hit the bull's-eye. Sully caught sight of MT's target and a competition had begun. Sully would shoot arrows right next to wherever MT threw a knife and MT would try to knock Sully's arrows off the target. I found myself chuckling, but I was amazed at the skill these two possessed with their weapons. I made a mental note to ask Sully and MT if they'd be willing to teach me their techniques. I felt a tap on my shoulder and Katrina was standing there with her sword.

"Hey Zyeke, wanna go a round?" She gestured to the ring.

"As long as you promise not to cut my arm off, sure. But if you do, make sure it's the left one." I said while laughing. She looked at me, puzzled, which made me laugh even more. I completely forgot that she had no idea about Rot's poison inside me. "I'll explain later." I said.

We stepped inside the ring and I took my staff out of my sling and tossed it aside. I held my staff in a defensive stance, enticing her to make the first move. She didn't disappoint. She moved fast on her feet and I was barely able to block a vertical slice aimed at my shoulder blade. There was a _clink_ sound as steel struck obsidian. I jumped back just in time to miss a vertical slice aimed at my legs. I was wondering if she really was aiming to take out a limb. I decided it was my turn.

I charged her with a basic strike coming towards her head. She blocked, and I twisted the staff into an uppercut motion to her chin. She shifted her weight to step to the side a bit and block the attack. I tried a sweep at her legs, but she jumped and sent a kick to my stomach. I let out a brief _oof_ before having to block another vertical sword attack. This time though, I brought the staff to my shoulders and ducked down. She proceeded with the strike and it struck my staff, but she was unprepared for the leg sweep with my foot. She lost her balance and fell to the ground. I went in to pin her down.

"Stop!" Ethan shouted with much more authority than I thought he had. I actually froze.

Katrina didn't pass up her opportunity. She kicked one of my legs out from under me and I stumbled backwards. She got to her feet and pushed me down to the ground. Before I could move away, the tip of her sword was held to close to my throat. I held up my hands in surrender.

"Ha! And who ever said guys were better than girls!" Katrina said triumphantly.

"Alright Katrina, you win. Now, if you would please take the tip of that sword away from my throat, I'd be grateful." I said calmly. She smiled at me and lifted her sword. She re-sheathed it and hopped out of the ring. I grabbed the string and vaulted over the side and onto the ground. I went straight up to Ethan and knocked him on the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" He complained.

"You messing me up." I said.

"Hey, you looked like you were about to hurt my sister!" He shot back. He was knocked on the head again. This time by Katrina.

"I can take care of myself Ethan. You don't have to be so overprotective all the time." She said

Ethan rubbed his head and didn't say anything more. MT and Sully had finished their little game and came to see what all the commotion was about. I gave them the short version. After being scolded on being beaten by a girl, I suggested we all get showers and something to eat. It was close to lunchtime according to my watch. Everyone agreed we'd meet at the cafeteria.

"Oh my gosh! That was delicious!" Katrina said as she finished off the rest of her pork.

"Almost as good as mom's back home." Ethan agreed.

We had all since ordered and eaten a generous lunch from the restaurant. Ethan and Katrina had ordered pork with a baked potato and carrots. Sully ordered a steak and bread and MT ordered chicken. I had made myself a sandwhich of sorts with bread, pork, and chicken. I was still working on finishing it.

We had all talked about our past lives on earth. Well, all except MT. Sully was a part of a middle class family who lived in Tennessee. They lived out in the mountains on a farm, raising cattle and growing crops. They had a good piece of land that was thirty acres and very fertile. Sully talked about how his family was so surprised by the amount of crops they were able to grow the first year, they ended up having to give some away! He said they had more than enough to tide them over for the whole winter and then some. They all worked hard and sold what they didn't need to a nearby town, along with buying anything they couldn't make for themselves. Sully said that when he first met MT, living with him was much like living on the family farm in Tennessee, except the food grew a lot faster. He lived the kind of life I wanted to live and I respected him for it.

Katrina and Ethan talked about their lives. They lived in a decent sized city in Kentucky, where they were relatively poor. Katrina was a very outgoing and athletic person. She always joined any sports-related club she could at school. Kendo, fencing, gymnastics, I was amazed. She said she had to walk home most nights though, since her family didn't want to use a lot of gas because prices were so high, but she said she never had any problems getting home. She was one of the most social and popular people in their public school. Ethan, however, was quite the opposite. He spent most of his free time gaming, watching anime, or studying. Rarely leaving the house and being so antisocial kept him completely the opposite of his twin. He was always better at strategy and building complex traps than participating in athletic activities. Despite this, they had formed a strong bond as brother and sister should, though Katrina still thinks that Ethan is a little overprotective at times.

Everyone wanted to know about my life back home. I told them I was raised in Florida most of my life and was currently living there before I was sent here. I wasn't really that much of a social person, keeping close to my friends and not many other people. My grades academically were pretty good and I loved participating in athletic classes. Everyone didn't expect much of me since I didn't look the part of an athlete, but after playing with my classmates, I gained their respect. It took a while, but I was normally included in games. I took martial arts two days a week and worked hard at it because I loved it. I was a gamer also and enjoyed playing with my friends on call of duty and RPG games. I helped out around the house when asked or when something needed to be done.

The waitress came and collected our plates. Lone had been eating with us and she looked very intrigued about our lives. There must have been so many concepts that were new to her that we discussed. We tried to explain things as best as we could when she asked about them. She was polite and nodded after we were finished, even if she didn't completely understand. It was actually a lot of fun sitting there, talking to my new teammates and getting to know them.

"Hello there!" I heard from the entrance. We all turned our heads to see Skelly walking toward. She was, strangely, wearing a two piece bikini outfit. "I thought I might find somebody here. All the princesses are going to meet up at the pool for a party later this afternoon. I was wondering if any of you would like to come."

"That sounds great!" Katrina exclaimed.

"I..If Katrina's going I guess that means I'll go too." Ethan stuttered nervously.

"A pool would be nice. It's quite a hot day outside." Sully agreed.

"I guess it's decided then. What time is the party?" I asked.

"In about half an hour. Sully, I notice that you carry a bow and arrows as your weapon. Are you good with them?" She asked.

"Good? This guy can knock his own arrows of the bulls-eye if you let him!" Katrina but in.

"I'm alright." Sully said.

"Perhaps we could arrange a little contest between you and me sometime?" She asked.

"Of course." He said.

"Until then." Skelly said. Then, she turned and left.

We all left the cafeteria to get ready for the pool party. I was going to have to make some swimming trunks, because I don't think I even had shorts to wear!

The pool was located in an underground cavern beneath the castle. Glowstone served as a substitute sun. The area was re-created into a beach. Sand was everywhere, lounge chairs made from wool and iron were scattered around the pool. Chairs and wood tables dotted a few areas in between lounge chairs, complete with chairs and snacks. There were two Olympic sized pools. One was filled with lava, one was filled with water. Each one had a maybe ten foot diving board. Some of the princesses had already arrived and were either in their respective pools or lying in lounge chairs.

MT and I had made simple black swimsuit shorts, while Sully and Ethan made theirs cyan. Katrina had settled for a pink two piece bikini. The attention was turned on us when we picked a table to sit down at. The two spider princesses, Mira, Inksabella, and Mira cam up to talk to us. Inksabella was in her normal blue two piece bikini, Mira was in her usual black and red slime two piece, Mira was in her white and green striped two piece, the spider princesses were the only one who had to actually change clothes. The older of the two was wearing a gray and black striped swimsuit and the younger one was wearing a dark green and black striped two piece.

"Hooray! Zyeke and his team made it to the party! Come on, you guys have to try out the pool! It's awesome!" Inksabella exclaimed.

We spent the next ten minutes or so splashing each other in the pool and having a great time. Inksabella cheated though, as she made mini tidal waves. MT was able to sneak behind Inksabella while she was distracted with us and dunked her playfully down. That made us all chuckle. She then used one of her tentacles to grab him and drag him under. She let go immediately after and popped back to the surface laughing. We were nearly underwater, we were laughing so hard.

"That one backfired on ya, didn't it MT?" I joked.

"You know, I can still do that to you!" He said as he started swimming towards me.

He chased me around the pool until I was cornered. I hopped out as he reached for my leg. I ran to the diving board and MT was in hot pursuit. I started climbing the ladder and was halfway up when he started climbing. I made it to the top and was on the edge when he made it topside. I gave him a stupid salute and back flipped off the board into a dive. I hit the water and was about to resurface, when MT crashed underwater and grabbed a hold of my foot. I playfully kicked him away and resurfaced. I got one breath of air before MT put me into a headlock and started giving me a noogy.

"What were you laughing about earlier, huh?" He asked.

"I was laughing about how Inksabella handed you your butt on a silver platter." I said while laughing and trying to get him to stop.

Suddenly, he did stop and was dunked underwater again. I two black tentacles holding him as he resurfaced and was dunked again. Inksabella stopped after three dunks. I was almost in hysterics when the two spider twins jumped on my back, forcing me under. I shook them off and paddled away from everyone. I saw Katrina dunking Ethan and Sully just laughing to himself as he watched the pandemonium.

"Aw, you all started the party without us?" I heard Skelly's voice say behind me.

She was with Cupa and the rest of the princesses and Rot. I was a little unnerved about Rot being there, but he wasn't throwing me any threatening glances this time. I don't know if the princesses were the reasons for his lack of hatred towards me or if maybe he had found some new kind of respect for me. Rot caught me looking at him and sneered at me. I guess that means it the first reason.

It turns out that Mira had brought volleyball with her and we picked teams for a game. All of the nether princesses started their own game in their lava pool with a ball that had a strange purple glow around it. Maybe they enchanted the ball with fire protection? The spider princesses wove nets for each pole between two Iron poles next to the middle of the pool. Cindy served and we started the game.

Unfortunately, my team ended up losing 18 to 21. Since Inksabella was on the opposite team, it was incredibly hard to score a point. She was like lightening in the water, but then again she was part squid. I decided to take a break from the pool and went to a lounge chair to dry off. Ethan and MT got out, but Sully stuck around for another game. I was watching their team's progress when the princess that I assumed to be Charlette came up to my chair. She was wearing a two piece white bikini that went well with her long white hair. She was a little pale and had amazingly beautiful red eyes.

"I'm sorry for asking, but we are short a person for another game of volleyball in our pool. I know you just got out, but we'd really appreciate it if you would come play with us." She said in a low, almost nervous voice.

I smiled at her. "Sure, as long as you have a few potions of fire resistance, I'll be good to go."

Charlette disappeared to one of the other tables and brought back three potions of fire resistance. I drank them and followed her to the lava pool. Blazette, Jade, Hilda, Mira, Skelly, and Heroine were all in swimsuits and submerged in lava. Charlette hopped in and waited for me to follow. I had to admit, I was a little unnerved to jump straight into lava, but I just closed my eyes and jumped. The lava was like hopping into a hot tub on earth. I suppose I had the fire resistance potions to thank for that. It was also a lot harder to swim in lava since it was more dense than water. Charlette gestured for me to follow her to the right side of the net. It was me, Charlette, Mira, and Jade against Heroine, Hilda, Skelly, and Blazette. Mira served the ball and the game began.

We actually won the game 21 to 20. Blazette and Charlette could both fly, so they were always competing against each other whenever they got the volleyball. I scored a few points, but not a lot since I had a hard time swimming in the lava. Thankfully, the ball didn't come to me too many times and I was able to bounce it back most of the time. There were a couple times that I missed and flopped my face in lava. That was the greatest mind f*** every time I did it. Right before my face met the lava, I always envisioned my face being burned off. I was a little glad when I got out to be honest.

Dinner was brought by skeleton servants. My team sat at our table and ate a huge portion of fish, steak, baked potatoes and carrots. I don't know who does the cooking around the castle, but I really did need to meet him one day. The food was excellent! My team and I talked about our experiences in the pool and teased each other mercilessly about embarrassing moments. It was close to eight when I decided to call it a night. The others wanted to stick around for a little longer, so I bid them goodnight and started the walk back to our room.

I opened the bedroom door and found that again, all my clothes had been washed and folded, as well as the others'. I grabbed my black jeans and headed to the bathroom for a hot bath, washing whatever I might have caught in the pool, though I was pretty sure they didn't have chemicals in minecraft last time I checked. Still, I washed up anyway. When I finished, I dried off and slipped into my black jeans. I walked back into the bedroom.

I was startled to see Heroine sitting on my bed and nearly jumped. The weird thing was that she was still wearing her bathing suit from the pool party. It was a two piece gray bikini that made her short brown hair stand out nicely.

"Uh, hi." I said awkwardly. "What are you doing in my team's room?"

She smiled that usual mischievous smile that she and her father seemed to have mastered.

"Oh, nothing, just dropping in." She said in mock innocence. "Do you remember what I said back when we were riding the minecarts to this castle?" She asked.

"_Aw, come on Heroine, quit torturing the poor guy." _

"_Your right Cupa, there will be time enough for that later."_

As if reading my mind, she smiled and tackled me to the floor.

**Well, that's chapter 12 for you guys, sorry for taking so long. Be sure to favorite, follow, and most of all, leave a review if you want to know what happens to Zyeke! His future depends on your reviews! I hope you all enjoyed and I will try not to take so long to update the next chapter. Until next time.**


	13. Parkour Course (Part 1)

Chapter 13

We hit the floor with a thud. Or rather, I did. Herione landed on top of me.

"I thought we should resume what was interrupted." Herione said seductively.

You've got to be kidding! How is it that I could attract these princesses? I couldn't get a single girl to notice me in high school. What the heck? Heroine moved her hand up to my chest and started leaning in closer. I put my hands on her shoulders to stop her advance. I felt a sense of deja'vu . This is exactly what happened in the minecarts when we were on our way to Bone Castle. Cupa had bailed me out then, now nobody was here to help me.

Heroine smiled and started pressing harder against my hands. I felt my arms straining and weakening, her face getting closer to mine as the seconds passed. Quickly, I let go and rolled to the side. I almost got away, but Heroine's hand caught my arm and held me in place. I sent a light kick to her hand, but she wouldn't let go.

"Heroine, let go of me! I don't want to hurt you." I said.

She looked up at me with her seemingly soulless eyes. "I'd like to see you try." She said calmly.

I sent a full crescent kick down on her arm as hard as I could. Her grip weakened and I slipped out and into a fighting stance. A red mark appeared where my kick had landed and Heroine looked a little surprised, but she soon smiled that devilish, mischievous smile of hers. She held up her hands toward me. I lost control of my body. My arms moved without my consent and so did my legs. I tried fighting it, but I was only able to slow myself. Heroine wasn't happy about that. She intensified whatever power she was doing to me and I felt the strain on my muscle increase as I tried to fight back.

It was like being a puppet. The master was pulling the strings, jerking them this way and that to try and get me to do exactly what he wanted, or in this case, she. Every time she pulled the strings, I took a step closer. The worst part was, the more I fought, the harder the strings were tugged, the harder it was to keep fighting back. I was only six steps away from being within arm's length of her. My resolve was weakening and I was just about to give in. And that's when I saw it. The tiniest hint of exertion showed. One small sweat bead fell down Heroine's face. She the all-powerful, unbeatable person, I thought she was. This gave me new strength and hope and I fought harder, pushing myself to the limit. I stopped moving. I pushed my body to move backwards. I took a step back! I was doing it! I was winning!

It was all over in a second. I felt the pressure on my limbs increase tenfold immediately and I collapsed. My body remained upright, but I felt exhausted. My body moved towards Heroine again at a slow walk, mocking me. When I was but a few inches away from her face, she spoke.

"You continue to impress me Zyeke, but I'm afraid you're not as strong as you think. Now, indulge me."

I felt my head move in and kiss her. I didn't even try to fight it. It was pointless.

I heard the door open and the spell Heroine had on me was broken momentarily. I nearly collapsed as I pulled away. I looked up to see Cupa in the doorway. She looked at Heroine and then to me. She looked to be on the verge of tears.

"Cupa, it's not what you think!" I exclaimed.

"Your jerk!" She screamed and slammed the door shut. I could hear her running down the hall.

I couldn't stand any longer. The physical strain on my body coupled with new emotional pain was too much. I slumped to the ground.

Heroine chuckled. "Well, what a great turn of events for me! It seems that the only person you truly liked now feels betrayed. How wonderful! I think I shall leave you now. We can continue this another time anyway."

And just like that, she disappeared from the room, her laughter still ringing in my ears.

I just sat there against the wall next to the bed, aching. Heroine had won. She had robbed me of my confidence and hope in one fell swoop. Cupa probably hated me now after what she saw. I wasn't sure I was every going to get the chance to explain things to her or if she'd even listen. I felt tears forming on my eyelids. I tried to hold them back, but in the end I just cried. I can't remember the last time I cried, but I knew it wasn't as bad as this. I tried to at least cry silently, but a few whimpers escaped my throat.

What chance did I, we, have? How were we supposed to win against mob princesses that were stronger _and_ possessed powers? I tried my hardest against Heroine and I fell. Maybe Rot was right. Maybe I was a pathetic weakling. I pulled my sore knees up to my chest and sobbed.

* * *

I must have fallen asleep at some point, because when I opened my eyes again, it was bright outside. The moment I moved, I felt my muscles ache. Another reminder of last night's defeat. I dragged myself to the bathroom. I looked terrible. My face was a little puffy from crying last night and my hair was ruffled this way and that. I hit the button above the sink labeled CW for cold water. I splashed my face a couple times and wet my hair so I could press the parts that were sticking up back down. That was a little better.

I stepped out of the bathroom to see MT, Sully, Katrina, and Ethan all standing around the room looking at me. They must have come in last night while I was asleep. No doubt they had seen me in my emotional wreck.

"Morning." I muttered.

"Morning." They all replied. "You want to talk about what happened last night?" Sully asked.

I found my staff leaning against the wall by the bed with the sling. I grabbed it and felt its weight in my hands. I just kind of stood there, staring at my staff. I had to make a choice from here on. I was either going to try my hardest to overcome all my obstacles and keep getting back up every time I was knocked down, or I had to give in and leave the tournament entirely, forsaking my home and the life I had. I clenched the staff hard and slung the sling on my back.

"No. I'm alright now. We have a challenge to win." I said. "Everyone ready?"

I received nods from everyone and we headed out to the courtyard.

* * *

We arrived last. Everyone was already gathered around the fountain and we soon joined them. I spotted Cupa next to Skelly. She looked at me and then put me to her back. Something tells me it was probably going to take a lot to make things right again. If they ever would.

"Good morning contestants. I hope you are ready for the challenge. The two slowest teams will be forced into a battle royal. The loser of the battle will be extracted from the games. Get ready for teleportation."

* * *

We were placed on separate platforms made of netherbrick. I looked around and saw many different types of blocks randomly placed around the big area. We seemed to be in a gigantic cube made from bedrock. Glowstone and torches placed on the sides of blocks provided light for the course, though there was a pitch dark area at the tip of my vision. Platform made of iron, emerald, diamond, and other minable blocks were made for what I assumed were to mark progress. I heard the sound of pistons contracting. There must be some parkour machines farther up out of sight.

"This course has been made by the enderdragon and I, expect some surprises. Teleportation and special abilities are not allowed in this challenge only what you have brought with you may be used to help you. Good luck to you all. The challenge will begin with the sound of the tnt cannon."

We were all separated on three main platforms. Thankfully, my team was all together. We probably didn't have long until the tnt cannon sounded, so I figured we needed to work out some sort of plan. I gathered up everyone and led them to the back of the platform.

"Okay, the good news is that the princesses can't use any of their abilities, did you all bring any items with you to this challenge other than your weapons?"

Everyone shook their head except for Ethan, who was smiling. "I don't have a weapon that I'm good with, but I played minecraft a lot when we were still on earth. I always like using potions and making traps, so…" Ethan reached into his hoodie and pulled out six or seven speed potions. "I figured since this was a parkour challenge, these would come in handy."

We all congratulated him on his thinking and gave him a pat on the back. "Ok," I said, "Now, we need a plan. Anyone got any ideas?"

"I suggest breaking up into two groups. Ethan should travel with me and you. Katrina and Sully should go as a pair close, but not too close. We need to stay together, but being separated into these two groups will make it easier to cover each other." MT suggested. "If we are separated, lose a person from your group Zyeke to go and cover him or her. We should also make sure we are the last to leave. Let the other princesses get ahead a bit. We don't need to come in first, just not last. Stick to the outside and keep moving. Good?"

I was a little surprised MT had this all figured out. "Sounds good to me. Let's do it."

The tnt cannon sounded. Almost every princess instantly shot forward. The two spider princesses pushed each other off a block they both landed on and rejoined us on the platform. Andr and Heroine made it to the two starting blocks and started jumping from block to block. The nether princesses got out onto the course next. Melinda and Cupa were put on the same team and worked together to get out onto the course. We waited until the spider princesses, who were the last to get out on the course, went before I hopped onto the first oak block. Ethan followed my lead with MT behind him. Katrina took the lead of the second group, followed by Sully.

The first part of the course was very easy. The only blocks on the first part of the course were made of oak wood and they weren't spaced too far apart. We stuck to the outer edge of the map and made it to the second platform pretty quickly. We were still last though. We arrived just as Andr and Heroine jumped from the second platform. I signaled for the team to wait so we could examine the next part of the course.

Things looked like they were going to be a little tougher. The oak blocks were spaced further apart, maybe 3 or 4 blocks apart on some parts of the course. I could hear the pistons a little louder now. We had gone up maybe twenty blocks and it looked like there was still a ways to go. We stuck with the original plan and waited until the other princesses left the platform before we went. We stuck to the outside, but it was a little more difficult to make the jumps. Ethan nearly fell on one jump attempt, but MT jumped and clung on to the block Ethan was standing on and steadied him with his free hand. It was very risky, but Ethan was able to jump to the next block.

The third platform was made of ice, an indicator that the next portion of the parkour was going to be a lot tougher. We made it there last and Ethan tried to apologize to MT, but he shrugged it off and told him not to worry about it. Katrina and Sully arrived shortly after us. It looked like we had to travel 20 blocks up on ice. This was going to be very difficult. Even the princesses were hesitating slightly before going off.

"Okay guys, this is going to be one of the hardest parts of the course. Take it easy and take it slow. Do we need a small rest?" I asked. Everyone shook their head no.

I volunteered to test the first block when all the princesses had gone. I jumped and landed on the first ice block. I landed in a crouch and grabbed the back end of the ice block to keep from sliding. After a second to prepare myself, I jumped to the second block. My teammates adopted my way of landing and we slowly made our way up. We heard a sudden scream as one of the princesses slipped and fell of an ice block above me. It was Mira. Quickly, I grabbed one side of the ice cube and shifted my weight to the right. I reached out my hand and caught her wrist. The sudden addition of weight nearly sent us both tumbling back down to bedrock. Mira looked up at me in surprise.

"I'm going to swing you over to that block over there. Can you land it?" I gritted out under the strain off her weight. She nodded and I started swinging her towards an adjacent block below me. Katrina and Sully were below us to my right, so Mira wouldn't obstruct their path. Once she was one more swing away from being over the block I warned her to get ready. She nodded and I swung my arm one last time. I let her go over the block and landed on her butt. She winced a bit, but smiled at me in thanks. I nodded and moved to rejoin my group.

About five blocks from the top, MT slid a little too far on his landing and was barely able to grab onto the edge of the block. He hung, half suspended for a second before pulling himself back up. We asked if he was ok, and he shouted back that he was fine. I heard another scream and this time it was on the other end of the course. I saw one of the spider princesses, Cindy, had slipped and was now falling toward the ground. I was terrified as to what would happen, but I kept watching. She fell down and hit the second platform full force. There was a soft thud from what I could here, but I'm sure the impact still hurt immensely. I expected that she had to have broken her ribs, but she got right back up and started from the first block again. She fell from about fifteen blocks and was still able to continue. Though, now she moved slower and she winced from time to time as if she was in pain. I made a note to myself not to fall. I wasn't as durable as these princesses. I would hate to think what would happen to me, should I fall.

We made it to the fourth platform without another incident. It was made of soul sand from the nether and more of it dotted the course to the next platform which was the one shrouded in darkness. The brown sand seemed to grab at your feet a tiny bit whenever you took a step, making walking and running a bit more difficult. The first jump was a four block jump. We witnessed the first princess, Charlette, try for the first jump. She missed by inches and fell with a small scream. She landed on an ice block a few blocks below us. This caused a lot of hesitation between the princesses except for Andr and Heroine, who just jumped it like it was a normal jump. This was probably the best opportunity to get ahead.

"Okay, this is probably the best chance we're going to get to get ahead." I said. "Everyone drink their speed potion. How long does it last Ethan?" I asked.

"Eight minutes." He said.

"Okay, then we have eight minutes to finish this section." I looked up to where the second platform was. "It's about thirty blocks up. We can do it in eight minutes. Remember, go in fast so none of the princesses can stop you." I reminded the team.

We all drank up. My body felt tingly all over, itching to move. I dashed past the princesses and jumped onto the first block with ease. The speed potion not only boosted my jump, but it also took away the grip the soul sand had on me. My teammates followed quickly behind me. This sparked activity between the princesses and they sped after us. I guess they weren't too happy about being behind. About a little more than halfway up, I noticed that Hilda and Jade were catching up to us. They didn't look like they were just going to pass either.

"Katrina, take my place and keep going. Sully and I will make sure Hilda and Jade don't give you any trouble." I shouted to them. They were two blocks away. I hopped down a block and Katrina came through to take my place behind Ethan. They continued on while we waited for Hilda and Jade. We were on a small platform of four soul sand blocks. They were four blocks away from us, but Jade covered most of the distance in one jump. I had forgotten about her amazing jumping capabilities. She landed on a block a few feet from mine.

I didn't want to fight on a parkour course, so I decided to try the peaceful solution. "We're willing to let you girls pass as long as you don't mean us any harm." I said to Jade.

She chuckled a bit. "Hilda is still a bit mad about the arena match. Melinda and Cupa made her day a living nightmare and I don't think she's forgiven you for that." She replied.

"Then why are you helping her?" Sully asked.

She shrugged. "She's a part of my team, what choice do I have? Besides, getting your team to come in last helps us. Sorry."

Hilda cleared the last block and was now on a block a few feet from Sully. Our speed potion effects were still in use, but I didn't know for how much longer. Hilda drew her stone sword and Jade readied herself in a battle stance. This was going to be very tricky on a parkour course.

"Who are you taking?" Sully whispered to me.

"I'll take Hilda, she wouldn't be happy with anything less." I replied. He nodded.

We switched blocks. There were a lot of soul sand blocks around us and one more platform of four soul sand, so at least we would be able to move around without too much trouble, but fighting on such a small space was going to be very difficult. I pulled out my staff and readied myself. Sully put himself in a boxing-like stance. I guess he didn't want to use a weapon as lethal as a bow against the princesses. I couldn't blame him.

Hilda leapt off her block and prepared a vertical slash to my body. I raised my staff up and blocked it. Sully jumped off the platform to a surrounding block of soul sand to give me room. She arc her sword into a horizontal slice at my left leg. When I blocked it, she twisted her sword in a backhand motion and caught me with the flat potion of the blade. Pain shot through my head and I was thrown off balance.

"Do you know how awful Melinda and Cupa's new team treated me after the arena battle?" She shouted at me as she attacked with her sword.

"No, but that wasn't my fault now was it?" I said as I blocked her attacks and waited for an opening. I was hoping to make her angry. Making her angry made her reckless. Recklessness made room for error.

She let out a scream of rage and her attacks became more frequent and powerful. I blocked and dodged. She lunged for a stab. I sidestepped and sent a roundhouse kick to her back. She stumbled forward and I went to the floor and preformed a front leg sweep to her feet. She fell down and dropped her sword. Half her body was hanging off the platform.

"Zyeke, watch out!" Sully shouted to me.

I turned around just in time to receive a kick to the other side of my face for Jade. I went down to the ground. The momentum from that kick had me seeing dark spots. My face felt wet again and it didn't take me long to figure out it was blood. I saw a blurry person, who had to have been Sully jump in front of me and land a left hook on Jade. He followed it up with a straight punch to the stomach and an uppercut to her chin. She fell off the platform. I looked over the edge and my vision cleared up enough to see that she had landed on a soul sand block about six blocks below us. She was slow about getting up. Hilda was starting to get up, but Sully drew his bow and had an arrow aimed at her, warning her to stay where she was. Now was probably the best time to get away from both of them.

"You go first Zyeke, I'll make sure we're not followed." Sully said.

I didn't hesitate. I started jumping from block to block as fast as I could. Sully was right behind me the whole time, bow pointed at Hilda until he felt that we were far enough away.

"Were you really going to shoot Hilda if she got up?" I asked Sully.

"No. I wouldn't have, but she didn't know that. And thankfully she didn't test it." He replied.

We made it to the next platform. It was made from obsidian and everything above it seemed to be drenched in darkness. It was hard to anything past three feet or so. There was a dim light from one torch on the platform. There was a single lever on the platform. My team and two other princesses were the only ones on the platform. I got a lot of concerned looks when we got onto the platform.

"Oh my gosh Zyeke! Are you ok?" Katrina asked.

"I'm fine." I said, though it wasn't really true. My head was throbbing and wound from Jade's kick was stinging and bleeding profusely. I wiped it off with my shirt. "What's going on here?" I asked.

"We were waiting for you guys. We noticed brief flashes of light while we were heading up to this platform. It might have been from Andr and Heroine. I imagine it had something to do with this switch." MT said gesturing to the switch.

"Nobody has pulled it yet?" I asked.

"We were all catching our breath while waiting for you two. I think the other two princesses have been as well. They're probably waiting for their teammates." Ethan said.

"Alright, well we better get as much of a lead as we can then. Everyone ready?"

Everyone nodded. I walked over to the lever and pulled it to the opposite side.

**That's all for chapter 13. The rest of the challenge will be played out in chapter 14. I hope you all have enjoyed reading and ask as always that you favorite and follow if you haven't already. Please feel free to leave a review as I always love to read them, short or lengthy. Thank you all for your support, those who have reviewed and I hope to read many more! Until next time.**


	14. Parkour Course (Part 2)

Chapter 14

I could hardly believe my eyes. When I flipped the lever, I realized that this wasn't just a normal spread of blocks anymore. Redstone lamps dotted the air. Even though no redstone was connected to them, they flickered on and off. Obsidian blocks could be seen when a nearby redstone lamp flickered, but disappeared back into the darkness when it flickered off. There was about a two second timer on each redstone lamp. I found it odd that they could light up without power, but I didn't question it. This course was built by the enderdragon and the skeleton king after all. We all stared at it in wonder for a few seconds before I told MT and Ethan to go.

"Watch your step and try to go somewhat fast. I don't know how long those lamps will keep blinking." I said.

I took the lead with Ethan behind me, followed by MT. We hopped from obsidian block to obsidian block, not really knowing how high we were going, how long we had left to go, or how long the lamps were going to keep blinking. I jumped to another block and almost fell off because I landed right on the edge. I flailed a bit before I regained my balance. It was getting more difficult to see the blocks. The further up we went, the less amount of redstone lamps there were.

Our progress slowed as the redstone lamps depleted to about two or three in the surrounding area. We had to double check blocks before jumping to make sure we weren't going to fall. I looked down to see if anyone was catching up to us and sure enough, I saw a bunch of shadowy figures maybe ten blocks below us. I looked up and my hopes rose. I saw a large iron platform maybe seven more blocks up. We'd be there shortly.

I was so happy to be back in the light. Jumping around in half darkness wasn't really my cup of tea. I could tell the others were just as relieved. We were on a shiny platform of iron blocks that was probably close to a 32X32 square. I looked back to the darkness below and saw nothing but clinking lights. I guess you couldn't see that part of the course from the outside. Very weird…and scary.

I turned my attention back to the next part of the course. I now understood what the piston sounds were from before. Ahead of us was an obstacle course of piston machinery. There was the classic piston wall, one wrong step and down you went. There was a blank wall made of iron blocks after that that I assumed was probably going to be a timed mini-parkour course. And to top it all off, the last part of this course included something I never saw before. Two sticky pistons were stuck together and were moving back and forth at random intervals and there wasn't just one of them. There must have been at least 15 of these strange sticky piston contraptions. And get this, there was nothing powering the pistons. Like, the redstone lamps, they too ran without redstone power. A platform made of gold blocks could be seen in the distance. Lovely.

While we were busy examining the course, I didn't happen to notice that Rot had come up from the dark portion of the course. I heard a thud of two feet, which was followed by a pain in my back. I was thrown off my feet and skidded a few blocks on the hard iron floor. MT and Sully turned around to confront him, but then Hilda and Jade came up onto the platform, along with Blazette, who looked pretty pissed off. Jade went after Sully, Hilda went after Katrina, who had since pulled out her blade.

"Let's see who's the real swordswoman!" She exclaimed.

Blazette was heading straight towards me with an angry look in her eyes, but she was cut off by MT.

"I don't think so." He said as he pulled out his knives. "You gotta get through me first."

Ethan was running to me as I was starting to get up. Rot was right behind him.

Before I could shout a warning, Rot knocked him aside with a football shove. Ethan fell to the ground, but Rot kept running towards me. I decided my best bet was my staff. Unfortunately, I was still a little shaky from Rot's sneak attack. Rot was on me before I knew it and knocked the staff out of my hands. It skid across the platform and fell off the edge.

"Let's see how well you do without your precious weapon!" Rot spat.

I readied myself in a tae kwon do defensive stance. Rot threw a punch towards my midsection. I crescent kicked his hand away followed by a knife strike to his neck and a punch to the gut. It didn't faze him in the slightest. He laughed and sent a another punch to my left cheek. I recoiled from the hit and spun around on my feet, trying to keep my balance. I felt blood trickle down my lip and new pain emerge from my face. Of course he wasn't affected at all by my attack, he can't _feel_! Time to change tactics.

Rot charged in for another volley of punches. I blocked and dodged and threw a hard roundhouse to his side. He staggered a little and I preformed a right leg sweep, followed by a tornado crescent kick to his neck as he fell. There was a sickening snap as his neck turned at an odd angle and he fell to the ground. I was about to help the others when Rot did the most disturbing thing I had ever experienced. Rot grabbed his neck in both hands and twisted his head back in place with another snap from his neck. He smiled sickeningly at me and sent a punch to my midsection. I was so unfocused that it actually connected. It was all Rot needed.

He sent another punch to my face, followed by an elbow strike with the same arm to the same area. I spun and fell to the ground. He grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and threw my across the platform like a ragdoll. Pain exploded throughout my back, legs, and face as I hit the ground repeatedly. Then, there was no ground anymore! I panicked and reflexively reached out to grab the edge of the platform. I don't know how I managed it, but I grabbed the side with my hand. Before I was able to pull myself up, Rot was above me with a smile triumphant look even the devil would have been proud of.

"You survived my poison human, but I sincerely doubt that you'll survive an over a hundred block fall! Goodbye Zyeke!" He said as he lifted his foot.

He brought his foot down and I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain and hoping I would hold on. It never came. I opened my eyes to see Rot's foot grinding into my hand. My left hand! The one Rot's poison had affected! A brief sense of irony crossed my mind. Rot looked surprised that I hadn't fallen screaming to my death.

"So, my poison did affect you! How did it not kill you? No matter, I imagine this will have the desired effect!" He raised his foot again, only this time it was aimed for my face.

But his foot never made it. I saw a look of surprise appear on his face as he fell off the platform, past me, into the darkness below. I looked up to see my savior. It was Mira! She offered her hand to me and I took it gratefully. She helped me back onto the platform. Sully had since finished up with Jade and Hilda bolted onto the next part of the parkour course to get away from Katrina. Blazette, analyzing the new circumstances of her situation, broke off her fight with MT and jumped onward to start the next part of the parkour course as well.

I tried taking a step forward, but only managed to stumble and nearly fall. Mira caught me before I hit the ground. She put my arm around her shoulder and helped support me. Ethan was back on his feet, but he looked a little dazed.

"Thanks a lot Mira. I owe you one." I said.

"Don't worry about it" She replied. "You helped me back on the ice course. I think we're even now, don't you think?"

I chuckled. Ethan walked up to me and handed me a potion of regeneration. Oh boy, my favorite!

After going through the pains of a quick recovery, I noticed that several of the other princesses had joined us on the platform and were now passing us on the next section of the course. We were falling behind. Even better! I sighed in frustration.

"Everyone alright?" I asked.

Everyone was ok except for a couple scrapes and bruises. MT had a few burn marks on his arms, but he didn't complain about them. I thanked Mira again before she moved on to the iron course. More princesses were still coming from the obsidian section, so I decided we better move it before we lost too much ground. MT took the lead this time, followed by Ethan, then me. Katrina and Sully resumed their positions and followed us.

We hopped the first couple iron blocks to a small platform in front of the piston wall. I signaled for the team to stop. The wall was suspended in mid-air, but I was pretty sure that this time the pistons were being powered by redstone, otherwise, what would be the purpose of the wall? We watched the movements of the blocks that jutted out of the wall at certain time intervals. A few princesses passed us, but two were knocked off. Good thing we didn't rush into it.

Once I was pretty sure of the timing of the blocks, I dashed forward onto the small one block floor. I passed the first two blocks before they came out from the wall, but stopped suddenly, as three more came out in front of me. When they retracted I moved forward two more blocks and stopped before another block came out from in front of me. I kept moving to a predetermined time table as I avoided being knocked off the small floor I stood on. I checked on my teammates and sure enough, they weren't far behind.

We all made it off the wall and continued up more iron blocks until we reached the timed piston mini-parkour wall. We stopped on a small platform similar to the one before the piston wall o this time, there was a button attached to the wall next to us. I pressed it and iron blocks jutted out from the wall, one after the other. After about ten seconds, the iron blocks started retracting, one by one backwards, until the last block at the end of the wall was pulled back in. It was about maybe 25 blocks long and it looked like we'd be going up about 15 more blocks.

"Ethan, you got anymore speed potions?" I asked.

"No, only a strength potion. Sorry Zyeke." He said apologetically.

"Well, we go one at a time then." I said as I pressed the button a second time.

I started moving once the first block came out, jumping from some blocks as soon as they appeared. I was only able to do this for the first couple blocks, as the others came out higher up. I was about three quarters of the way done before I heard the iron blocks begin their countdown. I picked up the pace and finished before the last two blocks retracted. MT went next. He finished it with ease, with ten blocks to spare. I was worried about Ethan when he made his run. He made it just as the last block retracted. Katrina and Sully both made it with about five blocks to spare.

We moved on to the last potion of this section of the course, and perhaps the scariest. Unlike the piston wall, there was no timer or rhythm to these sticky piston blocks. They moved back and forth at random, making the jumps all the more frightening. We stood on another small platform and observed the blocks, hoping to find the slightest clue as to the best way to approach this challenge. We couldn't find any.

"Be as careful as possible, ok guys? Once we're through this, we'll be in the clear." I said trying to sound encouraging. They were trying not to show it, but I could still see a hint of fear in everyone's eyes. I'm sure I showed some too. I was scared out of my wits!

A piston duo made its way over to us and I risked the jump. I landed on the end of the piston on the right and I was off. It was a difficult ride at first, having to keep balanced, but it got easier as the pistons traveled on. Another one came close to me. I waited until the middle was lined up with me before I jumped, that way, if it went forward or backward, I would land on one of the end pistons. My theiry was proven correct and I made it safely to the next moving pair of pistons. I looked back to my team. Apparently, they observed what I did and copied me.

After a lot more jumps to multiple pairs of pistons, I had finally made it to the last one that would take me to the gold platform. I was so anxious; I jumped a little too early. The piston didn't go the direction I hoped it would. My hand caught the pole in between the piston's exchange. I cringed and waited for the pain as the piston closed. There was a loud _crunch_, but thankfully it was my left hand that had been caught on the rung. Quickly, I used my right hand to grab the end of the right piston as it pulled away. I pulled myself onto the piston and examined my hand as it took me to the gold platform.

It looked unnerving to say the least. Two of my fingers were bent at funny angles and the rest of my hand looked as flat as a pancake. Okay, it wasn't that bad, but I bet that I just broke a lot of tiny bones in my fingers and hand. I tried clenching it, and to my surprise I was still able to make a weird fist. Gosh, that's creepy as f***!

I hopped off at the gold platform and waited for the rest of my team to arrive. Fortunately, they made it without any hand-crushing injuries. They were concerned about my hand, but I told them I couldn't feel it and not to worry about it, I would explain it later. The good news was that there was only two parts of the course left. A platform of diamond signaled the end of the course. The bad news was that it looked like a team and a few other princesses had already made it there. I could also see that some of the other princesses had started the gold course, and what a course it was.

So, envision this, gold blocks spaced throughout the entire course, relatively easy to jump to. Pretty easy, right? Yeah, except for the fact that there were probably close to a hundred dispensers shooting out arrows at a rate close to one per second! There was no way we were going to get through that! We'd die before we even came close to the emerald platform that lay about twenty blocks up. The other princesses were going pretty slow, but they were managing to dodge all the arrows with great agility and speed.

I was about to say screw it, until MT pointed out a chest in near the edge of the platform. Maybe it would have something that could help us. We opened the chest and just found a bunch of wood blocks and string. It looked like nobody touched it before us. Mt dived right in and picked out four wooden blocks. He crushed them in his hands and when he opened it again, there was a miniature crafting table in his hands. He threw it down and took out six wooden blocks.

"Ethan, do you still have that potion of strength?" He asked.

"Yeah, here. It's last eight minutes" He said as he handed the potion to MT.

MT nodded and got to work. He cut out thinner wooden boards with a saw from the crafting table, and then tied string around them tight. I think I had an idea of what he was doing. My suspicions were confirmed when he place it on his arm to act like a shield of sorts. Seeing that the shield was a pretty good size, we could use it to deflect the arrows. He quickly made enough for both of us to have one on both arms.

"Ok, we need to go fast if we're going to catch up. Everyone ready? Stick close!" I said I hopped ontot the first gold block. The makeshift shields weren't that heavy and it made it so much easier to navigate through the course without the worries of arrows. Though we were pounded relentlessly, they held and we passed several princesses in the process. We made it to the emerald platform in no time at all.

The last section of the course looked very dangerous indeed. It was pretty much a deathtrap. Before us was a platform jumping stage rigged with tnt at each platform. All the platforms had preassure plates attached to the diamond blocks. Tnt was placed underneath every block, so you wouldn't know which pressure plate would set off the explosion. And to top it all off, three out of six teams were standing at the finish line, so that next team to reach the finish line would be safe. All the other team's teammates were all there, except for three princesses. No pressure!

Luckily, I had an idea. I tossed the wooden shield onto the first platform. The tnt underneath exploded instantly and left only a few block of diamond still standing, but they way was safe now at least. I jumped and threw the other shield onto the next platform. The best part was that we had just enough shields to make it past all the platforms. We were going to make it!

Or at least, so I thought. I looked back once we were halfway or so clear. The two spider princeses and surprisingly enough, Rot, were speeding towards us. Sully, Ethan, and Katrina were the only ones left with shields to throw, so that left me and MT to defend them. The next explosion left us a 6X6 platform to defend. We told the two of them to keep going while we defended this platform so they could get to the finish line. One thing was for sure, this last battle was going to decide who won. There could be no mistakes!

Sindy made it to the platform first. Unfortunately, she landed on the edge and didn't regain her balance. She fell with a scream of anger. Cindy was more careful with her jump and she made it onto the platform. She drew what looked like two _extremely_ large spider fangs, sharpened to a point. MT drew two daggers and they began their duel. I heard more explosions from in front of us, only two platforms left. Rot jumped onto the platform and went straight for Katrina while she was in the middle of fighting Cindy. I slammed into him before he even got close.

"Nice try coward, but your not going to win that easily!" I spat with as much venom as I could muster.

"We'll see who wins now that you don't have Mira to save you!" He spat back.

He charged me and I sent a sidekick to his midsection to force him back. I only had to buy time, so I just needed to keep Rot away from me long enough for MT and them to finish. Rot came in close with a punch aimed at my gut, I side-stepped and kicked him away, nearly sending him off the edge. I rushed toward him, hoping to knock him the rest of the way off. It didn't happen that way at all.

He turned around just in time to nail me straight on my nose. I felt the crunch of bones as my nose broke and the pain that came with it. Instinctively, I clutched my nose with one hand. Worst mistake in a battle. Rot sent two punches and I was only able to block one. The other one landed on my knee. I yelled out in pain and fell to one knee. I received another elbow strike to the back of my neck. I collapsed on the ground and started seeing stars and not in the good way. I felt hands grasp around my neck and squeeze. Rot was out for blood.

I tried pulling away his arms with my hands, but one was broken and I was running out of air to put out my all. Black spots started appearing in front of my eyes. If I didn't get air soon, my lungs were going to burst!

Suddenly, the pressure was released and I heard Rot scream as he fell of the platform. My vision was fuzzy, but I saw that MT had shoved him off the platform. Unfortunately, I saw another shadowy figure holding her fang to strike MT while his back was turned. With the rest of my strength, I threw myself in between them. I got stabbed right through my right shoulder.

I screamed out in pain and punched the shadowy figure that had to be Cindy. I didn't like doing it, but I had to if we had any chance of winning. The path was clear now and I told Mt to bolt to the finish line. My vision was still blurry, but I followed MT's figure as he ran. Only two more platforms to go! One more!

I felt my legs instantly go numb and I collapsed on the last platform. My body cringed up and I couldn't move. Those fangs must have been laced with spider poison! I couldn't do anything now, but watch as MT crossed the finish line. He turned back with a big grin on his face until he saw that I was on the floor. Cindy stopped next to me.

"Nice try." She said in a playful, mocking tone. I could only watch as she crossed the finish line and a tnt cannon fired. We hadn't all made it to the finish line. I didn't make it. I couldn't hold my own against Rot, which made MT have to save me, which gave Cindy her opportunity. It was my fault. We had lost.

**And that's chapter 14 Everyone! Don't forget to leave a favorite and follow my fanfiction if you like it. Above all, make sure to leave a review for me. I love reading them. It looks like Zyeke and the team are going to be fighting for their chance to stay in the games. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Until next time.**


	15. Recovering

Chapter 15

I awoke in my bed for a third time. Not my bed in minecraft, my bed on earth. I looked around to see my room was in the exact shape of the last two dreams. The only things about nightmares that make them all the more terrifying, is knowing you're in one and can't stop it. I knew that no matter what I did, my nightmare would find a new way to make my skin crawl. They always did.

I mentally went through my previous nightmares in my head. I shivered. Did I really want to repeat one of them or would I do something new and find something else horrifying? If I didn't decide then my indecision would likely make the second nightmare replay itself. I couldn't face Cupa's face of agony again, even if she hated me. I grabbed my guitar off its stand, my acoustic, and walked over to my window. With one good swing, I smashed it instantly, breaking free from my homemade prison.

Outside was an exact replica of my neighborhood. My neighbors were outside their house playing with water pistols, the mailman was making his run down our street, and I saw a friend of mine walking on the sidewalk at the far end of the street by a stop sign, cars moving back on the busy road behind him. Everything looked peaceful.

It was only after a few seconds that I began to notice subtle changes. The first sign was that the traffic started moving in one direction and they were all definitely going faster than the speed limit. I heard a couple horns honk, then a lot of crashes. My friend looked behind him, and then he took off running down our street. My neighbors had also noticed the new commotion and stopped their water battle to see what was happening. All of our attention was to the street corner.

I really wasn't prepared at all for what came. A giant tarantula spider came around the corner from the busy road, crushing cars underneath its large, hairy, legs. It's beach ball size eyes scowered the street I was on until it found me in my driveway. It let out a raging screech, opening its mouth to reveal two mammoth size fangs and dozens of other small sharp teeth. The tarantula started moving towards my house with great speed, destroying anything in its way. The mail truck that had been zooming by was now reduced to no more than a crushed shell.

I turned to run, but I heard my front door bust off its hinges. I looked to see the zombified version of myself coupled with the zombified version of Cupa. They let out inhuman roars and moved with incredible speed towards me. I didn't even get two steps before I was pinned to the ground. One side was my greatest fear of what I might become, the other side held down by the person I was afraid to lose. I was met with devilish smiles from both of them, blood displayed in patches all over their clothing.

I struggled, but couldn't break free. If anything, their grips strengthened. The spider was now only one step away from impaling me with one of its front legs. Instead, it inserted its two front legs into the asphalt on both sides of me. It leaned its monstrous head down close to me and griined at me, flashing its fangs which were now dripping with saliva and venom. Suddenly, its eyes turned a pure white, all of them! Then, it spoke.

"Aw, poor Zyeke. He can't even face his fears head on. How pathetic." The voice was Heroine's! There was no mistaking that mocking, soft tone. "Goodbye."

As if on cue, the zombified version of myself bit down onto my left arm and Cupa bit into my neck. Heroine topped it all off by sinking one of her large fangs straight through my shoulder. I could feel the venom as she injected it into my body. My insides felt like they were melting on the inside and my neck and arm felt like they were being torn off slowly. I couldn't take it anymore. I screamed.

* * *

I awoke in our team's room. It didn't appear to be morning since it was still dark out. Nobody else looked like they were in the room with me, which was probably because the rest of the team was sleeping down in MT's room he made. I glanced over at the couch and saw a sleeping figure, but I couldn't see who it was from my angle. I sat up in my bed. I could move again, that was a plus at least.

My right shoulder was bandaged and I felt a twinge of pain from it when moving it, but it was more like an ache. I had a bit of a headache, but otherwise, I didn't feel too bad. I looked at my left hand. It looked more pale than usual, but maybe that was just because of everything I put it through in the last challenge. It wasn't broken anymore. My fingers looked like they were supposed to and they moved regularly now. I saw my staff was beside my bed. Someone must have returned it from the course.

I got out of bed. I wasn't tired and I wanted to be somewhere alone for a while. Now seemed like the best time since everyone was probably asleep. I was still in the pants I wore from the parkour course. They were grimy and sticky, so I changed out of them. I found another pair of pants folded next to my staff along with a shirt I had made also. I needed to find out who was in charge of cleaning the team's room and thank them. I changed, grabbed my staff, and walked past the couch. MT was fast asleep. I tiptoed the rest of the way out of the room.

I arrived at the courtyard and sat down on a bench in a corner by the castle, out of sight. I stretched out on the bench and stared at the stars, alone with my thoughts. We would have to battle against another team in order to stay in these games and have the chance to get home. I wasn't able to beat Rot. _We'll see who wins now that you don't have Mira to save you! _That's what Rot said before the fight. Was I really that weak? Did I always have to depend on others to help fight my battles? My mind flashed back to MT knocking Rot off the platform. He left himself open to Cindy so he could save me. I sat up and clutched my face in my hands. I was angry. Angry at myself for not being good enough to take on Rot, angry that I had been put in this situation in the first place, and angry that I was wallowing in self pity.

"Zyeke? Are you alright?" I heard someone ask.

I lifted my head to see Mira in her usual green striped swimsuit, her pigmen beanie hat covering half her face. I straightened up. "Yeah, I'm fine." I said.

"No you're not, you look terrible and that was hardly a convincing reply. What's wrong? Are you upset about the challenge? She asked.

I let out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I am."

She sat down next to me on the bench. "Why? So what if you lost this challenge. You still have another chance."

"Yeah, and what happens if I mess up this time?" I asked. "We'll be kicked out of the tournament. None of the others that came from earth will ever get to see their families again and guess who's head that's gonna fall on?" I stood up and turned back to Mira. She had a look of shock on her face. I don't know if I was yelling, so I lowered my voice. "I'm scared. I'm afraid for my teammates, I'm afraid I'll never see my family or friends ever again, and I'm afraid…of Rot's poison that still flows inside me. I'm scared I'll end up just like him." I finished. I was never much for talking to others about how I felt. I preferred facing my problems on my own, but whenever I did, I let it all out.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned back to face Mira. "You're not at all like Rot, nor will you ever be. You saved me from falling on the ice course, you cheered Lone up when she was feeling horrible from the battle at the arena, and you got a lot of the princesses to like you. They don't like you just because your human, they like you because you are a very kind, considerate, courageous, and determined person, myself included." She paused "Though I can't say the same for Hilda."

I laughed. Mira joined in after a few seconds. It was relieving and I felt as if all my worries had been lifted off me. I felt a lot better, mentally and physically. When we stopped, I gave Mira a hug. She had boosted my spirits and I was grateful. She seemed a little surprised, but she returned it.

"Thank you." I said.

"Your welcome." She replied.

We broke apart. There was something that was nagging me a little. "Hey Mira, weren't you on the same team as Rot?" I asked.

" I was, but when you broke apart from your old team, Blazette and I were re-arranged onto new teams. Blazette replaced you on team one and I replaced Blazette on team two."

I was about to speak when I heard my name.

"Zyeke!" A new voice. It sounded like…Blazette!

I turned and looked to see Blazette in her usual two piece and light armor. Her hands were on fire and so was her hair. She didn't look very happy with me and I didn't have a potion of fire resistance! I held my hands up in a sign of surrender. I didn't feel like being burned alive today/

"Whoah, whoah." I said, trying to diffuse the situation, "What did I do to you?"

Before I had time to react, I got slapped across the face, hard. The fire only added to the stinging and I let out a small grunt. It kept stinging with the same intensity as the slap itself. It probably left a burnt mark. Blazette pointed a flaming finger at me.

"How could you? How could you have done a thing like what you did to Cupa? Better answer fast, my patience is wearing thin." She said as the fire on her hands spread to her arms and intensified.

"What's the point if you're not going to listen?" I yelled at her. Not a very smart move when dealing with a princess that can charbroil my a**, but you know what? I had just about had it with always being the bad guy!

She looked shocked at my sudden outburst. We both kind of stood there, staring at each other. Blazette looked like she was debating something in her head. Suddenly, the flames extinguished "Mira, please leave. I want to speak alone with Zyeke." She said. Mira gave me a worried look before she went back into the castle. Blazette crossed her arms.

"Start explaining then." She said.

So, I told her about that night after the pool party. I told her about how Heroine used some sort of strange power to take control of my limbs and body. I told her I fought it with everything I had, but in the end, I lost and she made me move in close and kiss her. I choked at the part where Cupa came in. When I finished, I couldn't tell if my story affected Blazette at all.

"And how do I know you're not just making this up?" She asked.

I was a little irritated that she would ask that, but I kept my response calm. "Because I'm not the kind of jerk that would do that kind of thing. Unlike some of my generation, I was instilled with morals and values that I try my best to live by. I haven't broken any of them yet and I don't plan on it." I paused. "I just…want to talk to her. I want the chance to make things right again, even if she doesn't believe me."

"That won't be necessary." Blazette said. "She heard every word."

I looked past her to see Cupa standing by a topiary bush of a skeleton.

"Cupa…" I said, shocked.

"I'll leave you two be." Blazette said. She re-lit her hands and pointed a flaming finger at me. "This is your only chance, you blow it, I'll be coming after you." She said before leaving the courtyard.

Great! No pressure! Cupa walked up to me. I couldn't tell what she was feeling; her face was devoid of emotion. "Cupa, listen…I'm sorry. I…" I was interrupted by Cupa instantly rushing at me and wrapping me into an embrace. I was a little surprised, but I returned it quickly, glad to have Cupa back. It's funny, almost two days worth of mock betrayal resolved in less than ten seconds. I was happy. For once, things seemed like they were improving. We laid down on the grass and enjoyed the rest of the peaceful night.

* * *

I opened my eyes and was instantly greeted with bright sunshine. For a minute, I panicked, thinking last night's events were nothing more than a dream. This was quickly disproven when I saw that Cupa was laying next to me, fast asleep. I smiled. She looked so peaceful, but I knew I should probably wake her. She had a team to get back to, and so did I.

I gently nudged her and she stirred, slowly opening her eyes.

"Good morning." I said.

"Good morning Zyeke." She said groggily. "Did you sleep well?"

Actually, I was surprised that I actually had a good night sleep. I felt like a new man, well teenager. "I slept pretty well, how about you?" I asked.

She nodded her head and smiled at me. I think I could run all day on just Cupa's smile. I was about to say that our teams were probably wondering where we were, when MT burst into the courtyard. That answered that question. MT looked around until he spotted us. He approached us, grinning at me as he walked up.

"Well, looks like you two have resolved things." MT said.

Cupa blushed a little and I scratched the back of my head nervously. "Yeah, you could say that." I said.

After standing there awkwardly for about a minute, Cupa said she had to get back to her team, so she said goodbye and ran off. As soon as she left, MT asked me for the details. I told him about me wanting to have a little air when I woke up, Mira finding me, my encounter with Blazette, and then about Cupa and I making up.

"Looks like you guys did more than make up." He said to me with a wink.

I turned red and immediately denied that anything happened. "No, nothing happened. We just slept together, outside."

"Oh, so you just 'slept together'" He said with a laugh.

I punched him lightly and we headed back toward the castle to find the team.

* * *

After a good sized breakfast of steak, eggs, and bread, I discussed with the team what we needed to accomplish before tomorrow. We were going up against Rot's team in the battle royal. The good news was that the team had been shortened to three people. The bad news was that two very strong princesses were a part of those three, Andr and Inksabella. We had to think of some sort of strategy to take them all down.

I suggested going to the training room to sharpen our skills and, twenty minutes later, that's where we were. I was practicing with Katrina, fighting against her with my staff in the ring and her with her sword. This time, I was the one to knock her to the floor, gently of course. Her brother sent me a death look and I laughed. Ethan had his own space, where he had made multiple targets and was practicing hitting them with a variety of splash potions. He was actually pretty accurate. I just hope that when we're in the battle, he hits the enemy with the bad potions and not the good ones.

Sully and MT were going against each other in hand to hand combat. Sully's boxing tactics against MT's fighting style was amazing to watch. MT didn't really have a specific fighting style. If I had to choose one, I'd say he was more mixed martial arts, but he used his hands a lot more than his feet. Watching their hands move to block or attack was more like watching a live action movie. Unfortunately, Sully tripped up and left himself open on his right side. MT didn't miss it and sent a punch right to his ribs, followed by a sweep, then a punch to the stomach. It was all light of course; we didn't want anyone injuring a teammate.

After our sparring matches, we sat down for a short break and tried to pair up who would be best against who in tomorrow's fight. Andr and Inksabella were going to be the toughest ones to fight, so we decided that two people were going to have to take her on. Same with Andr. I already said I was going after Rot first. Nobody objected.

We decided that MT and Sully should go against Andr for two reasons. One, MT was raised by an enderman, so he knows a bit on Andr's teleportation limitations and fighting tactics. Second, the two of them worked well together and were fast, making them the primary choice for the instant reaction time Andr's teleportation required.

Katrina would be paired up with her brother, Ethan, against Inksabella. One, because her brother wouldn't have it any other way and two, because with Ethan's strategic mind and potion enhancements plus Katrina's skills in combat, I was sure that they could take on Inksabella. The only thing that worried me with Inksabella, were her tentacles. They could come out really fast, strike hard, and then recede back into her body. Not that I didn't think they could handle it, but I was a bit worried.

And that left me against Rot. To be completely honest, I was a little scared of him now. I wasn't before until he almost killed me during the parkour challenge. I was almost completely helpless without my staff, but then again, maybe that was because I never made a backup plan for Rot. I definitely had a plan for defeating Rot, but it was risky. I didn't really know if my plan would work because he didn't really feel physical pain, but it was the only one I had, so I was going to stick to it when the time came.

We were just about to get up and practice some more when we heard the door open. We all turned to see Skelly with her bow in hand. She didn't seem surprised at all to see us here, in fact, she looked like she expected us to be here.

"Hello everyone! I thought I might find you guys here, so I came to join the fun. Sully, I think I recall that you said we would have a small archery challenge against each other not too long ago. What do you think about right now?" She asked.

After pausing to look at us for confirmation, Sully nodded his head. "Sure, I remember. Let's set up some targets then."

Ethan and I helped set up targets made from wool and fence posts. There were two of them. Both were outlined by white wool and one block of red wool sat in the middle. Skelly and Sully readied their bows. Skelly said that the challenge was going to be whoever could shoot the most amount of arrows in the bulls-eye of the target, would win. Sully nodded and Skelly asked one of us to count down. Katrina jumped at the chance and started counting down from three.

"Ready? 3….2….1….Go!" She screamed.

Both of them immediately let go of their arrow. I started timing, but Skelly had already loaded another arrow. She was very fast, firing about one arrow every two seconds, but with more speed, you lose accuracy. Only about two out of three arrows would hit the bulls-eye. Sully was a slower, but every single shot hit the bulls-eye. He probably fired an arrow about every three seconds, taking about one second to aim. It was pretty amazing watching arrow after arrow hit the target. I was just amazed that they both could hit the target, firing at such fast speeds. Skelly noticed that she was falling behind though, and started increasing her speed, if that was even possible. Soon, she was firing one arrow per second, still hitting the target, but not the bulls-eye each time. You could see that she was nervous, but Sully had a calm, collected attitude each time he shot.

Once the minute was up, we walked over and counted the arrows in the targets. Skelly had shot 45 arrows, but only a little over half hit the bulls-eye, 26. Sully, on the other hand, had fired exactly 30 arrows. Each one had stayed true and hit the red wool. That beat Skelly's number by four. Sully had won the challenge.

Skelly was shocked. The look on her face was priceless. I don't think she was used to someone beating her at her own weapon proficiency. She was a good sport about it though, shaking Sully's hand after the challenge and congratulating him. Not so much to my surprised, she asked him to dine with her at the cafeteria during dinner. What was surprising was that he actually agreed! Skelly practically radiated as she left the training room, despite having lost her challenge. When we asked him about it, he said he agreed because he thought it would raise her spirits, but something tells me that that's not the whole story though. None of us pressed him. Instead, we congratulated him on his victory and got back to training. Maybe we really did have a chance this time. My confidence in my team, and myself, was rising more and more as we trained together.

* * *

We arrived back at our team room about four hours later, exhausted and sweaty. We all took turns using the bath, letting Katrina go first. Let it not be known that if we weren't anything, it was courteous. Once we had all cleaned up, everyone was starving, so walked down to the cafeteria to have lunch.

A lot of the princesses were at the cafeteria at this hour and all the waitresses were busy taking order and drink, so we just seated ourselves and waited patiently until one came to take our order. They didn't take long, and within fifteen minutes we had ordered and received out food. Five star restaurant quality service or what? I know I had steak this morning, but it was so good, that I had to have it for lunch too. The chef got the baked potato just right too. It was soft and flavored with a lot of butter. I had a great idea and crushed my potato and spread it all over my steak. My mom used to do this with roast beef and mashed potatoes. It wasn't as good as that, but the combination turned out pretty delicious. We finished our food pretty fast, but we didn't feel like leaving yet, so we just sat around and chatted. We started going around the table, teasing each other, laughing, and having a good time. It was one of the first times I felt at home in a while.

We were going to definitely win against Rot, Andr, and Inksabella. I was sure of it.

**Well guys, that's it for chapter 15. I hope you all have thoroughly enjoyed this chapter and I please ask that you follow and favorite if you haven't already. Make sure to leave a review ^_^! The battle will start in the next chapter, so I hope you are all looking forward to it! Until next time.**


	16. The Battle to Remain

Chapter 16

After finishing that gourmet lunch, we all left the restaurant/cafeteria with satisfied stomachs and grins. We still had about five hours to kill until dinnertime, so I figured that now was probably the best time to talk to Sully and MT about their skills and teaching them to us. I asked them about it was we were walking back to the training room and they agreed it would be best for the group if they learned how to use a bow and throw knives.

Once we arrived back in the training room, we made six targets from wool and wood much like the one Sully and Skelly used for their challenge. Sully volunteered to teach us how to use a bow first. We made some from a crafting bench in the corner quickly out of string and wood. When there was enough for everyone, we all made a pile of arrows at our feet from the leftovers from the challenge. There was more than plenty for everyone. We were all setup in front of five targets, using the sixth one for demonstration purposes by Sully.

"Alright everyone, the skill of shooting an arrow is pretty simple. Being able to shoot quickly and accurately is not something that you will likely achieve on the first couple tries. It'll take practice and rigor, but I'm sure you all will be able to hit that target by the end of the hour. When you do, the hard parts over. Now, ready your bow like so."

We followed Sully's example. He came around and inspected every one of us, correcting any errors he saw in our stance. After making three examinations, he seemed satisfied. He went back to his target and shot an example arrow. He hit the bullseye with almost no effort. Our first shots, however, were not very well placed. The only person who hit the target at all was MT, and he kinda had a head start on us since he lived here all his life. Sully laughed and told us all to keep at it. We fired arrow after arrow and Sully would come to each people individually to help whatever flaw he saw.

I heard a shout of triumph as I turned to see Katrina fire her arrow and hit the target. She fist pumped the air and went over to hug her brother and then Sully. It wasn't long before I hit the target and could hit it continuously. Ethan was the last to figure it out, but he was doing his best to keep up. Soon, we could hit the targets without missing for as many as seven shot in a row. Sully congratulated us on our progress.

"Now, work to hit the bullseye. You've still got another hour of practice before I let MT take the floor." He said.

None of us were able to hit it for the first ten minutes. That was when I started slowing down my shots, taking ten seconds to aim. On the fifth shot of doing this, I was able to hit the bullseye in the middle of the target. I allowed myself a small smile as my team congratulated me. The others started copying my method and soon they were hitting it as well. We were all feeling pretty good until Sully told us to do it faster. After that we were lucky if it even hit the target. Although, at the very last five minutes or so, we were able to get close, but not quite hit the bullseye. Sully seemed satisfied enough. He even put on a fake "bow acceptance" ceremony for us, which gave us all a good laugh.

MT was up next. He reached into his jacket and I was surprised to see him pull out close to twenty knives. He distributed them evenly and took the place of Sully as our teacher. He held out a knife to us briefly and then threw it with lighting fast speed. It landed on the bullseye with precision accuracy.

"I won't lie to you. Knife throwing is extremely difficult to master and I don't expect any of you to hit that target and have the knife stick on the first try, or the second, or the third, and probably a lot of times after that. But, as Sully said, practice makes perfect. Let's begin."

MT explained the dynamics of his technique of throwing as best he could. He didn't throw like those knife throwers you see in cowboy western movies. No, his was more like a ninja throwing a shirikan. The knife was thrown completely horizontal and stayed that way until it landed wherever it was meant to land. Much like Sully, he taught us the technique individually, then watched as we practiced. We did much worse than with Sully's bow challenge at first, but as MT went around critiquing everyone's technique, we were soon able to hit the target, sometimes the bullseye even. After we all could hit the target consistently, he stopped us. We had been practicing for close to an hour.

"Good job guys, you all learn pretty fast, but there is more to combat with a knife than just throwing. It's also good for close combat." He said as he showed us a series of techniques for close quarters fighting. As he fought, the blades in his hand twirled much like you see someone do in a circus, except his looked more…intimidating.

To start he had us practice an exercise meant to improve our dexterity with our hands. After maybe ten minutes of dropping knives, were able to twirl and twist the knives in our hands pretty decently. After that he showed us a few sparring techniques that we practiced for about a half an hour. I gotta admit, this new training was really helping our team become more connected as well as well rounded with medieval weaponry. I think after all the training, we had a new found respect for Sully and MT and their skills as master bowman and knifeman. We decided to call it quits after a total of four hours of training and we went back to the team room for more baths before dinner. 

* * *

The restaurant was abuzz with activity, even more so than lunchtime. It seemed like every princess chose to show up at that time. Waitresses were moving with astounding speed, delivering drinks and food as quickly as possible. The jukebox in the corner was playing a music disc, I believe it was 'chirp'.

We seated ourselves again. No sooner than we did, I saw Skelly rush up to our table. I was a little shocked that she changed her apparel for the evening. Instead of wearing her usual gray vest and skirt, she downed a very pretty gray dress that came a little past her legs. I was leek and looked like it was made from something a little nicer than minecraft's standard wool. How she got it, I didn't know, but she looked pretty stunning in it. I think I know who she dressed up for too.

I glanced over at Sully, who was now feeling a little underdressed as he was just in a casual shirt and wool pants. Nonetheless, he played the part of a gentleman and excused himself from out table. He escorted Skelly to a table in the far corner of the restaurant, away from everyone, yet not quite out of our sight line. Very clever. I wasn't sure if Skelly was better at controlling her "urges", but just in case, we'd at least know if something happened.

Cupa came in with Lone and Katie and spotted us at our table. As they came over, I pulled out a chair for Cupa beside me. Ethan, much to my surprise, followed my lead and pulled two more chairs over to our table next to him.

"Such gentlemen!" Lone said as she did a small curtsy to Ethan, who proceeded to blush and push her chair in when she was seated. He did the same for Katie as well. Thankfully, they were both wearing standard clothes for once, or I was sure Ethan might have fainted. He still looked beet red as he sat down next to the two princesses. Cupa smiled at me as I pulled her chair out for her and pushed it back when she was seated. A waitress came and took our orders and soon we had a very full dinner in front of us.

"So, are you all ready for the challenge?" Katie said in the middle of eating her fish.

"We definitely prepared ourselves." I said as I looked around the table at everyone. "We picked up a few new things and we have a set plan of action, so I think we'll pull though in the end. Right guys?"

I was met with woops and cheers from my teammates. "Yeah! They won't know what hit em!" Katrina exclaimed.

"We definitely have a good chance." Said MT.

We all looked at Ethan, who was focusing a little too hard on his food. Almost deliberately.

"What do you think Ethan?" Lone asked.

Katrina interjected for Ethan "He'd answer if wasn't for you two sitting next to him. He's a little shy around pretty girls." Katrina teased her brother, who promptly flicked a carrot in her direction. It hit her square on the nose and caused us all to nearly burst into tears of laughter.

"I wouldn't really know. I'm not really a good fighter. I guess I'll just support the team as best I can with the skills I have and the new ones I've learned." He said quietly.

"He's quite humble isn't he? And cute!" Katie commented, sending Ethan into another blush to which we all chuckled.

I looked over to where Sully and Skelly were sitting. They seemed to be having a great time and so far, nothing dangerous looked like it was taking place. Sully and Skelly were talking and it looked like they were laughing and having a good time as well. Good for him.

Out of the blue, I felt someone tap me on the shoulder from behind and I saw the others at the table look behind me. I turned around to see a pleasant looking Inksabella with an indifferent looking Andr and a very agitated Rot. I wondered what they wanted.

"Hello!" said Inksabella cheerfully. 'We thought we'd come to wish you all luck for our battle tomorrow!"

"You're gonna need it weakling." Rot said as he sent an intimidating stare towards me. I returned it without any hint of fear. Inksabella elbowed him. He didn't react at all to it. No surprise there.

Inksabella went around and shook all our hands, along with a piece of paper to Ethan, which I was kind of curious about. Andr did the same, but Rot just stood where he was, sneering at all of us. I guess nothing was ever going to change him. They left after my team and hers finished exchanging our best wishes. I thought it was very nice of them to do so and I respected them for it. Well, except Rot.

When they left, I asked Ethan about that piece of paper he received from Inksabella. He shrugged and opened it. He instantly turned beet red again.

"Well, what is it?" we all inquired at the same time.

"It's…h-her room number…" He stuttered out.

We all burst out laughing, harder than we ever did before while Ethan shrunk down in his seat. We all messed with him about being a ladies' man, playboy, and anything else we could think of. He soon accepted it as good humor and laughed with us. Since we really didn't know if we were really going to survive the next challenge, it felt good to have fun. If we all died, at least we had one last great night together.

When we got back to the room, we all were beat. We said short goodnights and I offered to take the couch since I had the bed last night, leaving the bed for whoever wanted it. Katrina took it gratefully, saying she was tired of all the boys snoring. We all chuckled. MT, Sully, and Ethan crawled underneath the bed and down the trapdoor to the hidden bedroom. I had asked Sully how his "date" went with Skelly. He said it went pretty well in his normal calm tone. It turns out that him and Skelly had a lot in common besides archery, which was pretty amazing considering they both came from different worlds. I wondered how they were going to work out.

I flopped on the couch and under the covers, drifting slowly into a peaceful slumber.

* * *

My eyes fluttered open and were greeted by a flood of sunlight. I lifted a hand to block the glare coming from the window until my eyes readjusted themselves. It turns out that I was the first one awake. I decided to prepare myself first before waking anyone up. I took a quick bath and changed into a new pair of clothes that were washed and folded neatly in a corner of our room. I grabbed my staff and sling and threw it around my back.

It turns out that I wasn't the only one awake because once I was ready, I heard the trapdoor open from underneath the bed. Mt, Sully, and Ethan crawled out, already equipped and ready for battle. MT was in his usual black jacket and clothing, but I knew what secrets were hidden underneath. Very sharp secrets. Ethan seemed to have fashioned a potion belt from leather and iron around his waist. Potions of all kinds were strapped to his waist at an easy reach. He also had two knives, no doubt provided by MT, sheathed inside the belt. Sully had his bow in hand and a quiver on his back, dressed in normal clothes and looked ready for a fight. That left Katrina, who was still silently sleeping in the bed.

I took the responsibility of waking her. Her eyes opened groggily for a second, before registering my face. She threw off the covers and hopped out of bed. She had apparently prepared for today the night before. She was dressed in a black tanktop and jeans, sword strapped to her side.

"Are we all ready?" I asked. I received silent nods from everyone. On that note, we headed to the courtyard.

It felt kind of empty without all the other princesses here. Andr, Rot, and Inksabella were already by the fountain. Inksabella looked a little bummed out, probably because Ethan hadn't showed up at her door last night. Andr looked focused and Rot just looked menacing as always. We joined them by the fountain.

"Now that you are all here, we can begin. Commence teleportation!" The skeleton kings voice boomed from nowhere.

I felt the tingling, awkward sensation of teleportation, but I think my body was getting used to it. We were teleported right back to the coliseum where I had battled against Hilda and Lone before. Everything was repaired and the coliseum looked like knew. The screams and shouts of the mobs in the stands started picking up at our arrival. Coincidentally enough, we were teleported facing our opponents. I was facing Rot, MT and Sully were facing Andr, and Ethan and Katrina were facing Inksabella. At least we didn't have to worry about getting to our assigned combatants.

"As consequence for not completing the parkour challenge, Teams 6 and 4 with battle until the other team cannot continue. The winning team shall advance forward in the tournament, but the losing team with be eliminated. Good luck to both teams. You may start at the sound of the tnt cannon."

Both my team and the opposing one were anxious to get this underway. I could see everyone was tense with anticipation of the tnt cannon.

It sounded.

I headed straight towards Rot, but skidded to a stop when I heard a dreaded sound from behind me. _Woop!_ I turned around in time to stop a punch that would have likely broke my face from Andr. She smirked and I heard about six more _woops_ sound around me. Suddenly, I was surrounded by six endermen. So much for sticking to the plan!

She teleported away to stop Sully and MT who were now heading towards me.

"Sorry boys, you'll have to get through me to get to Zyeke." She said.

I pulled out my staff quickly while dodging an enderman punch. I started rotating my body in a constant 360 while twirling my staff into a defensive stance. One enderman tried to lunge at me from behind me, but I saw him out of my peripheral vision. I turned around quickly and sent a decimating blow straight down on his head. He crashed to the ground with a scream before dying. That set off the other endermen as they all let out a horrifying screech.

I couldn't keep track of them all to plan out my moves. I was moving strictly on instinct, on what I could feel, hear, and see. I was on the constant defensive, blocking volleys of punches coming from everywhere at once. Unfortunately, I slipped up and one got me right in the stomach. I grunted in pain and swept his feet out from under him before finishing him quickly with a strike to the head. I heard two dying endermen screams from behind me and I was about to shout a thanks to whoever took them out. I was able to turn my head in time to see Rot, who decided that he couldn't wait any longer to fight. He slammed right into me with his elbow and I went flying across the arena.

I rolled across the dirt and skidded right into the coliseum wall with my back. I let out a sharp gasp of pain as it traveled down my back. My breath was knocked right out of me and my shoulder added to the throbbing in my back. I didn't have a lot of time to lay there though. Rot was speeding towards me again. I got to my feet and waited right at the wall. He lunged again at me, but using the wall, I launched myself over him as he threw himself against the wall. There was a loud crash as he broke right through the stone. I took this time to get as far away from him as possible.

The last two endermen were helping out Andr in her fight against MT and Sully. MT was being as quick as he could, but he couldn't deal with three teleporting targets. Sully couldn't even use his bow. Instead, he was in his boxing stance, trying his best not to get hit. They both looked like they were tiring out quickly and wouldn't last much longer without help.

With a loud roar I didn't know I possessed, I unclicked my staff and hurled the two pieces around MT and Sully. It was stupid and the probability of actually hitting just one of the endermen was close to none, but I didn't care. I had to do something. Amazingly, the endermen chose that exact moment to teleport behind the two guys. The staff pieces were dead on and they both let out screams before falling to the ground, unmoving. Andr sent a look that would have curdled dairy, but with her attention distracted, Sully was able to get a good hit to her stomach. MT followed it up by jumping off of Sully's back to land a good front kick straight to her chin. I let out a shout of triumph, but my victory was short lived. Rot was up again. And he looked angrier than ever. He thrust his hands into the ground. Cracks spread across the dirt as eight zombies emerged. Time to think fast!

"Ethan! Throw me the potions!" I shouted to him.

Katrina and Ethan tight battle against Inksabella. Inksabella had summoned her black tentacles for help and was using them to keep Katrina and Ethan at bay. Ethan heard me in the middle of using his knife in cut away one of the tentacles and reached with his free hand to two potions of healing. With one heave, he threw them over to me.

_I hope that God lends me a hand on this one!_ I thought as the two potions sailed through the air. I jumped up and caught the first one with one hand, slipped it into my pocket, and then flipped and sent a kick to the second one. _Please let my kick be accurate!_ Sure enough, my luck held and my foot connected with the glass bottle. Even better, was that it flew directly towards the group of zombies who had formed themselves into a nice tight horde. There was an explosion of glass as the contents of the potions sprayed from the potion right in the middle of the horde, drenching them all with its contents. The zombies let out the normal minecraft sound of their dying groans before they converted themselves into experience.

However, once I landed, I wasn't prepared for Rot's sudden appearance. He grabbed my arm and threw me across the arena again. I hit the wall right next to the spot where the big hole was. If only his throw had been off a little more. I hit my back again and I felt blood trickle down my back and fresh pain course its way through my body. I let out a yelp as I fell to the ground. I saw Rot approaching again, but I couldn't get up. I struggled to rise, but my back prevented me from getting up in time. I was grabbed by the throat and slammed against the wall. Rot sent another punch straight to my stomach, making me feel like I was going to puke. He raised his hand back for a blow at my head.

"Any last words weakling? I'll spare you some. Oh, and don't worry, I'll make sure your friends suffer a similar fate." He said with an malicious smile.

Now was the time. There's something I never told you all about, something I hadn't even admitted to my friends or family yet. You know how there's a good and bad side to all of us? As much as I try to be the best person I can be, I have urges and thoughts of hurting others more often than I like to admit, bad people of course, but it wasn't just about stopping them. It was about beating them until they were bloody and unrecognizable. I was ashamed of this, but for the most part I was able to suppress it. I always knew, however, that I could unleash that part of me. I never wanted to though, not unless it was the difference between living or dying. This time definitely qualified.

I closed my eyes and reached a hand into my pocket. I felt my anger and rage flow through my body, numbing all the pain and fatigue I had experienced. My muscles were given renewed energy and I was ready to start fighting again. I re-opened my eyes and smirked. "Yeah, I have three. You…are…finshed!" I shouted as I pulled out the other potion of healing and smashed it against his face. The glass cut into my hands, but I hardly felt it.

For the first time, I actually heard Rot scream in pain. I reveled in it. He let go of me and covered his face with his hands. Now was my chance to put him down. I charged him, grabbed one of his arms, twisted, and elbowed right at the joint. There was a satisfying _crack_ as his arm broke. He growled in anger and sent a punch with his other hand. I was faster though, as I caught it and repeated the process. There was another _crack_ as both of his arms hung limp by their sides, broken at funny angles.

Next I did a leg sweep, knocking him to the floor. Then, I grabbed one of his legs, twisted, and broke it as well. I found myself living to hear the crack of his bones. He tried to get up with his one good leg, but I knocked him back down easily. I grabbed his last working joint in his leg and broke it with as much force as I could muster. With a final _crack_, Rot lay on the ground, totally helpless. I had done it. I had beaten Rot.

I was far from over, my body wanting more. I looked to MT and Sully's battle against Andr. She was keeping them on the defensive, but she wasn't able to get any hits in. She looked like she was tiring with the near constant teleporting, the perfect time to jump in. I charged toward them and caught Andr right as she teleported in front of MT. She already in the middle of throwing a kick and couldn't prepare against my punch to her midsection. It stung, but I ignored it, sending two more to the exact same spot, followed by an uppercut. MT and Sully didn't waste the opportunity. A knife hit her clothing just above her shoulder and pinned her to the wall. Sully followed it up with an arrow to the same spot on the opposite side of her body. With a few more volleys of knives and arrows, she was completely pinned. I sent kicked to the knives and arrows to dig them into the stone, making sure she couldn't get out of there. I knew I didn't have a lot of time before she either gathered the energy or thought about teleporting away. Focusing on a point on her neck and sent a knife hand strike as hard as I could. Her head slumped down and her whole body went limp. She was unconscious.

I felt the urge in my body wanting to do more, to break her, but I stopped myself. It wasn't right to do that and I knew it. The only problem with resisting the urges was that the feeling would steadily start to leave. I could already begin to feel the pain in my hand and back coming back slowly. There wasn't much time left. I motioned to MT and Sully that we had to help out Ethan and Katrina. It looked like Inksabella sprouted more tentacles than last time I saw. She was starting to push Ethan and Katrina back to a wall. MT and I ran towards Inksabella while Sully stayed back and provided arrow cover. MT tossed me two knives before he threw one, severing two of Inksabella's tentacles. She turned around, shocked that she was the only one left.

I don't know if it was out of desperation or not, but she summoned a jet stream of water and shot it towards us. It was filled with squids! We certainly weren't prepared for that. One of the squids, much to my embarrassment, tripped me up and I fell flat on my face. Not a good thing to do. Almost instantly, I was covered in squids. This wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't have teeth! I felt stratches and bites all over my body as I struck out with my knife, trying to cut a hole through the pile of squids. My pain was coming back in full force and I knew I didn't have much time left before my body gave out. With one last bit of energy, I set my legs to a crouch and jumped up, slashing at anything in my way.

It worked. I broke free from the pile of squid and landed on the ground beside them. That was it. I collapsed to the ground, exhausted and bloody. I looked over to Inksabella. Most of her tentacles were severed now and she was struggling against all of the other teammates. My mind was filled with fatigue and I closed my eyes, letting rest come to my limbs and joints. Against all odds, We. Had. Won.

**That's it for chapter 16! Woohoo! I hope you all thoroughly enjoyed this chapter and if you haven't already, please remember to favorite, follow, and review! Even if you have already, I love seeing what others think of each chapter in their reviews. Also, feel free to express any comment or concerns in a PM to me if you have something you want to mention or talk to me about. I will try and respond in a timely manner. Thank you all for your awesome support! Until next time.**


	17. A beautiful night

Chapter 17

I found myself in a dark room. There was hardly any light, spare a single torch in the middle of the floor. All that was in the room were two wooden chairs. There was an iron door to my right, but there was no way to open it. The walls were made of oak wood in their familiar minecraft layout, but the two chairs weren't.

I looked over myself to find ne injuries present which struck me as a little strange. There wasn't really that much I could do about my current predicament. Someone had me locked in this room which had the eerie feeling of an interrogation room, though I didn't think I had violated any laws or rules. I suppose there really wasn't much left to do except to take a seat, so I moved to the chair and sat down.

Immediately, I heard the creek of the iron door opening and I turned to face my capture. I almost gasped. I was staring back at myself, only it wasn't me. It wasn't the zombified version of me from my dreams, but a perfect replica of me except for one big difference. My double had red eyes. Was I dreaming? I had to be. The other me smiled at me, but it was full of mischief and distrust. He walked over to the chair opposite of me and sat down.

"So, you decided to let me out a little then." It wasn't a question, but from that sentence I knew exactly what this apparition in front of me was. I was dreaming, no doubt, but now my mind had manifested the bad portion of my personality. This couldn't end well.

"Well, at least now I know I'm dreaming." I said simply.

"Aw, that's really all you have to say to me? I am your other half you know. I must thank you though. It felt really good to stretch a bit." He said, maintaining a smug face as he talked.

"Don't get used to it." I told myself.

He threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, don't act like you didn't enjoy it. You are me after all. You can't deny that you felt satisfaction upon hearing the breaking of Rot's bones. You enjoyed every second." He said as he laughed.

"Shut up!" I said as I lunged toward my sadistic self. I went right through him.

Instantly the room blurred to darkness. I was confused as to what had just happened, when a light clicked on and suddenly. I was in the hallway in the castle where all the rooms were located. Only, this wasn't the normal hallway. Scratches were apparent on the walls, the carpet was ripped and shredded in some places and blood blotted random areas in the hallway. My head told me not to progress forward, but I knew I had to.

I opened the first door to my right and nearly vomited. Inside was Lone, except that she was covered in bruises and cuts. Blood covered her stomach and some was dripping from her mouth. She was definitely dead. As if on cue, her body started to decay, but only half of the way. The putrid stench of rotted flesh invaded my nostril and I slammed the door shut, utterly horrified at what I saw. Who did this?

As much as I didn't want to, I checked out the other rooms. It was the same every time. Each room held a princess that was brutally murdered and each time, the stench became more rancid. It started seeping into the hallway even after I would shut the door. After the third door, I didn't even check the others, I didn't want to face more death. I just ran on through the hallway.

I came to a final door in the hallway. The only difference was that I heard a stifled scream from the other side. I knew that voice! Without thinking, I burst inside the room. If I wasn't scarred before, I certainly was now. Cupa lay on the carpet floor, her mouth open in a silent scream, fresh blood spilling from a stab wound on her chest. That wasn't the worst part though. I was poised over her, holding the knife. The minute I saw myself I was transferred into the me that was kneeling over Cupa. The knife was covered in blood and Cupa's eyes darted to mine, a look of never ending sorrow plastered on her face.

I felt my eyes water and I let out a scream of rage and sadness.

* * *

I jerked awake for what felt like the thousandth time. These nightmares were getting progressively worse. It was weird because I usually never had a problem with nightmares, but now they were happening frequently. That wasn't all that was scary about them either. Each one represented an internal crisis. And this one had disturbed me, which is no easy task. I held my head in my hands, feeling a small ache in my arm. My back also throbbed, but it was small compared to yesterday. I could feel that it was bandaged as well. Someone used a healing potion on my back maybe? Regardless, I was grateful that my body was only in small pain from aches.

I looked at myself and gasped. My arm, the one that Rot had bitten was deathly pale, more so than usual. That was not what I gasped at though. It was not only my arm that was pale now. It had spread all the way up my left arm to my shoulder blade. _What?! I thought my body fought off Rot's poison! _Obviously, I hadn't fought it all off. It was still inside, slowly infecting the rest of my body. Very slowly, so as to make the victim know that he/she had a time limit. And that internal clock was ticking down. I felt my nightmares start to come back to me, but I put a clamp on my thoughts. I definitely did not want a reminder of that right now.

After getting over my initial panic, I decided I needed to hide this. Not forever, but I wasn't quite ready for anyone to know about this yet. My shirt that I wore during the arena fight was tattered and torn on the floor beside the bed. I guess I had to make another one. It probably wouldn't hurt to have another pair of pants either. I made a quick trip to the bathroom to get some more wool from the chest. We were starting to run low, nearly three quarters of the chest was empty. I made a mental note to ask about it later as I walked to the crafting table to make a new outfit. I made a pair of dark blue pants and a black t-shirt. It may get old for some people to wear only two or three outfits their whole life, but I didn't mind in the least.

An idea hit me. Why not see the skeleton king about Rot's poison? He was a mob king right? So, surely he knew how to handle the other mob princesses, or in this case, prince's poison or at least direct me to someone that could help. I grabbed my staff and headed straight to the door, much calmer now that I had a plan of action. I opened the door, and came face to face with Cupa. She was poised like she was about to knock.

She put her hand down and hugged me tightly. I was more than happy to return it, I think I needed one. "You guys won." She said softly. "I'm so happy!" She looked up at me and I saw tears starting to form in her eyes. She was smiling. It was great to see her smile. I smiled back down at her and we held the embrace for what seemed like an eternity and I would have been more than happy to do so for a couple more. She broke it first.

We were both silent for a few seconds. "Hey, do you know where the others have run off to?" I asked Cupa.

"Yeah, the skeleton king actually called them to his throne room. He wanted to discuss room arrangements for each of your teammates. MT said he'd pass on the offer since he said he already had a room, which I'm assuming is the one beneath your bed. Sully, however, agreed to a new room. Ethan and Katrina agreed they would share a one. So, the skeleton king sent them away with skeleton escorts to show them to their new rooms. I guess they might not be back yet. The skeleton king also said he wanted to speak with you once you were awake. Probably shuouldn't keep him waiting huh?" She said sadly. I realized that we really hadn't had much time alone other than that night we made up. The other times, we were either with my teammates or with the other mob princesses. Was she feeling a little downhearted because of this?

"Hey, what do you say to a night out? Just the two of us. Tonight?" I asked her.

She face went from sad to excited in less than a second. It must have been the right thing to say. "Really? You mean it?" She asked. I nodded and she practically jumped for joy. "Ok, why don't you come to get me a little past dark? My room number is 18. See you later! I have to get ready!" She said as she literally skipped down the hall to her room. I was happy to see she was excited about this. Wait, did she say she had to get ready? What time was it? How long was I out for? I suppose I could ask the king when I got to the throne room.

* * *

"Good afternoon Zyeke Daniels." Boomed the skeleton king.

I offered a small bow. "Good afternoon, your majesty." Well, that answered my question as to what time it was.

"As you have likely heard from your teammates or from the other princesses, I have offered everyone in your team to have their own separate quarters and I extend the same offer to you. Would you like to have a new room or do you wish to share the same room you are in with MT?" He asked.

"I think I'd like to stay in my own room if that's now too much trouble, though I have a couple of questions for you if you'll hear me."

"Speak then. I will answer as best I can."

_Oh, where to begin?_ "How long was I out for?" I asked first

"Not that long, surprisingly. Only about two hours, human time. I am very impressed with you ability to recover after a large beating." He said with a chuckle.

I didn't know whether that was a compliment or an insult, but I decided to take it as a compliment. "Also, who does the cleaning for our, well I guess now it's just MT and I, team room?"

"I believe the maid that cleans your room is named Natalie. If you wish to find her, I will give you a map to find her quarters, though I'm not quite sure why." He said with curiosity

"I just wish to thank her is all. I have one final question and it is the most important." I shed myself of my shirt to show the skeleton king my left arm and shoulder. He narrowed his eyes and his skeleton face showed a hint of anger, or maybe it was disgust. It's hard to tell on a skeleton's face. "I believe you remember the capture the flag challenge. Well, when I fought against Rot, I was bitten on my left arm by him." I gestured to the scar. "I thought my body had fought it off and only infected my left arm, but now it has started to spread. The progression is slow, but it worries me. I wish for you to give me information on how to cure this poison." I finished.

The skeleton king lifted a bony hand to his head and scratched it, don't ask me why. He was silent for a very long time and I was a little frightened. Maybe he didn't have the answer. Maybe I would be sentenced to a slow death by Rot. After how far I've come and how far my teammates have come, it seemed very morbid.

Finally, after what seemed like weeks, he spoke. "There is only one way to cure such an ailment. Rot's poison is not like any other zombies'. His poison usually kills instantly, but in some rare cases, such as your own, his poison will inhabit its host, slowly turning it into nothing more than a shell. Free to move and do as it likes, but never to feel anything every again." He paused before continuing. "I'm afraid that the only person who will be able to cure you will be Rot himself, or his father, the zombie king. His kingdom is about a day's travel from here. Fortunately for you, the next event will take more time to construct, so you have three more days after today until the next event. If you like, I will also give you a map to reach that kingdom and speak with the zombie king. I warn you though, once inside his domain you will be completely at his mercy, not the best situation to be in if you ask me. But, that is not my decision. What says you?"

I thought about it for a minute. "Where is Rot now?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"He is with his father. Since their team lost the event, he, Andr, and Inksabella have gone home."

_Great!_ I told a breath of air and released it in a long sigh. "If you could provide a map, I would very much appreciate it." I said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure."

* * *

So, here I was, in my room, sitting on my bed, looking over the map. He was pretty accurate when he said that it would be a day's travel there. The distance was vast, but then again, everything was measured in blocks, so maybe it wasn't as far as it seemed. What was I going to tell my teammates? What was I going to tell Cupa?

I let out a frustrated sigh and placed the map face down underneath my pair of clothes that I planned to take for tomorrow. I had thought about taking my teammates with me, but that seemed kind of selfish to me. I would be taking them to a place where they would be in danger pretty much all the time, probably full of zombies, and to top it all of, there was probably going to be a giant one I would have to reason with. The king of zombies, who's son does not have a great liking towards me. How was I going to reason with him?

I glanced at my watch. Five-thrity. Well, for now, I needed to focus on making this a good night for Cupa. I think it was time I changed into something more…formal. I went to the bathroom and opened the chest, hoping there would be enough wool to do what I wanted. To my surprise, it was all restocked with all the different colors of the wool blocks. I made a mental note that before I left, I needed to thank Natalie for how clean and stocked she kept the place. I grabbed a bunch of black and white wool and went to work at the crafting table. I figured I would pick her up at seven, so I went to make preparations for our date.

An hour and a half later, I was in front of room 18. I had since changed into a tuxedo, carefully put together to the best of my abilities. I don't think I did too bad. I had made a black bowtie, cause bowties are cool, and was able to iron out the winkles. I still had my staff for emergencies as always and I had picked some flowers, roses and daffodils, from the courtyard to give to Cupa. Now, all I needed was the courage to knock on the darn door!

I knocked on the door and after many long seconds, Cupa opened it. I think my jaw dropped to the floor.

She was absolutely beautiful! Apparently, she had taken a lot of time to get ready. She was dressed in a formal emerald dress that came down almost to her feet. She was wearing emerald high-heel shoes that seemed to sparkle in the light. She had put on what looked like make-up, but my guess was she used colored dye. Her hair looked like it was freshly brushed and flowed freely behind her back. It was breathtaking to see her like this.

She smiled at my astonished look. She did a little twirl that made her dress twist and turn above her feet and her hair spun around in mesmerizing way that I couldn't describe. "How do I look?" She asked.

"You look absolutely beautiful." I said truthfully.

She blushed slightly. "You don't look too bad yourself." She said playfully.

'These are for you." I said, handing her the flowers.

She smiled and sniffed them. "They're very pretty. Thank you." She kissed me on the cheek and I swear I melted. I offered my hand. She took it and I led her to the courtyard.

Upon arrival, I saw Cupa's eyes light up. In the course of an hour, I had made a table and white tablecloth from wool. I couldn't make any candles, so I compromised and made miniature torches with stands for them to sit on. A tiny wooden bowl filled with small roses decorated the middle of the table. I borrowed some plates and iron silverware from the restaurant. The waitresses didn't seem to mind. They also supplied me with some wine glasses and raw chicken. I needed to ask the skeleton king where these item ideas from earth had come from. I didn't bothering wondering about it now though. Two chairs, with comfortable cushions were place to opposite ends. A jukebox was nearby and I had made a small cooking area with an iron pot I made. A campfire was ready to be lit. There was a crafting table with all the ingredients I would be needing.

Cupa was excited. I, on the other hand, was nervous as hell. I walked over to the table and pulled a chair out for her. She smiled and sat down. I moved to the jukebox. "What's your favorite music disc?" I asked.

"Far." She replied. I put the far disc in and it immediately started to play.

"Now, as good as the food is at this castle, I am going to expand your horizons." I said in the best show-timey voice I could. "I am going to attempt to create a dish from my world, earth, called chicken soup! But first," I said while pulling out a bottle filled with red liquid "A drink for the lovely lady." I said as I poured her a glass of a potion of healing. I remembered her saying that she liked the taste. She giggled a little and took a sip. I went to the kitchen area and started to chop up the chicken with a knife from the crafting bench. I had already pre-filled the pot. Once the chicken was cut into bite-size pieces, I threw it into the pot, next were the carrots, then the potatoes. I lit the campfire and stirred it with a wooden spoon before joining Cupa at the table.

"You really put a lot of thought into this, didn't you?" She asked.

"Just a little, some of it I'm just making up as I go along." I said.

She chuckled. We talked while the soup was cooking and at certain times, I would get up to stir it. I asked Cupa what her childhood was like, being a princess and all. She told me that as a child, she would play around with the other mobs all day. As she grew older, her father started training her to be a proper princess and she complied with every request he gave. But, when she was with her friends, or in this tournament, she had the chance to be herself and she tried to enjoy that whenever she got the chance.

I asked about her kingdom and she described a thriving city in the plains biome known as Creeperia. This is where their castle was located, along with most of the creeper human mobs. Their kingdom as very friendly with others and they traded with foreigners often. They had not been involved in any civil wars or wars of any kind really. That wasn't to say that there wasn't the occasional thief or band of rebels, but they were always caught and put in prison, or the dungeon as Cupa calls it. Interestingly enough, she mentioned that her father was searching for a possible suitor for when she became "of age". I asked if he had found anyone. She said she wasn't sure, but thought not.

The soup had finished and I took two wooden bowls from the table and splashed soup into both of them. I gave her her bowl and we both sat down and ate. She took one spoonful and her eyes lit up and she smiled.

"Oh my gosh! This is delicious!" She exclaimed as she took another spoonful.

I took a bite and she was right. It was pretty good, but I knew I could have made it much better if I had some spices from earth. "Good. I'm glad you like it because there's a whole pot over there that you need to finish." I said jokingly. She emptied the first bowl pretty quickly and fixed herself another one. She downed six bowls before she stopped. I went back to the pot to see how much she managed to go through. I was astonished to see that the pot was nearly empty! I laughed. "Wow, I guess you really did enjoy it!" I exclaimed. I had the rest of the soup.

We talked a little more while our food settled. In the middle of our conversation Cupa made a face like she just remembered something. "Oh, there was something I wanted to give you. You lost it back at the bar and I forgot to give it back to you." She said. She reached into her dress pocket (I was a little surprised I hadn't noticed it had pockets) and pulled out my MP3 player! Man, I had long forgotten about that thing. She handed it to me and I thank her. Suddenly, I got a crazy idea.

I walked over to the jukebox and pulled out the music disc. I really had no idea if this would work, but it would be awesome if it did. I picked a track of a slow song I liked to listen to when I needed to relax, then dropped it into the jukebox. I let out a silent woop when it started to play the song loud enough for us to here.

Cupa was a little surprised at the sudden explosion of foreign music, but the longer it played, the more she seemed to enjoy it. I walked over to her, my hand outstretched. "Would you do me the honor of dancing with me, your highness?"

She giggled and took my hand. "Why yes, good sir. I believe I will."

It was a good thing my mom had taken the time to help me learn to dance, otherwise I might have made an utter fool of myself. I took her other hand and we engaged in a slow waltz. She seemed to know the dance well and why wouldn't she? She was a princess after all. In the middle of the song, I kissed her, and we danced on that kiss. She hooked her arms around my neck and I put mine on hers as we danced the night away.

* * *

I walked Cupa back to her room and wished her a good night before returning to mine. MT was in the kitchen, brewing something.

"Hey Zyeke." He said without turning around. "How was your date?"

I froze. "How did you…"

"I looked for you after your sudden disappearance, we all did in fact, but I was the one who found you. I didn't want to disturb you though, you looked like you were having a good time."

'Right. Sorry about that, I didn't really mean to just up and leave you guys. Things just sort of…kept happening and I forgot to check in with you guys." I said apologetically.

"It's cool man, we understand. Alright guys, now!" MT said.

They were on me before I knew it. Sully, Katrina, and Ethan jumped out from different hiding places and started hitting me with pillows. MT grabbed one from the bed and joined the pummeling. I ended up on the floor, the blows from the pillows pelting my back. I kicked Ethan's feet out from under him and stole his pillow to fight back, laughing the whole time. Unfortunately, they had numbers on me and I lost, horribly.

"Not gonna do that again are you?" MT asked, a large grin spread across his face.

We were all sitting down, huffing and puffing. "No, I don't think I will. But, I do have to leave for a couple days guys, sorry."

Everyone went absolutely silent. "Why?" Ethan asked.

I debated in my head whether or not to let them know about my condition with Rot's poison. The looks on their faces told me yes, so I told them about waking up and finding that my whole arm shoulder had gone pale. I also took off my shirt to show them. I then told them about the conversation I had with the skeleton king.

"And before you guys even say it, no. I want to do this alone. I don't want you guys to be put in any more danger than we've already been in." I said.

"Not gonna happen, we're coming whether you like it or not!" Katrina said in the closest thing she could get to a stern voice. I had to stifle a laugh, but in the end I failed. Everyone back Katrina up though, saying they better not leave them out of the fun. I was glad to have these guys as my teammates and friends. They were the kind of people you'd entrust your life with and follow into the depths of hell, which wasn't far off from when we were going.

We bid each other good night and I hopped into bed. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

**There's chapter 17 for ya'll! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and as always, don't forget to favorite, follow, and review! Thank you all for your support and have a very Merry Christmas! Until next time.**


	18. Castle of the Zombie King

Chapter 18

We all woke early, preparing for the long trip ahead. Ethan was busy making potions of all kinds, Katrina was making backpacks for each of us from the remaining wool, MT was creating knives, chests filled with paper for the food, and any other items he thought we'd need. I was in charge of making all the food for us for the two day journey there and back. We all worked in silence. I had my MP3 player on and one ear bud in my ear listening to some pierce the veil to help pass the time.

Once we were all packed, I told my team to head out to the courtyard and that I'd be there once I took care of one more thing. When they left, I got a piece of paper out of a chest along with an ink quill. I started writing a quick letter to Cupa, apologizing for leaving without telling her. I tried my best to reassure her in my letter, visualizing her reaction as she read, prompting me to do better with each sentence. I finished by saying we'd be back in two days and that I'd see her soon. I folded it up and walked out the door and out into the hallway, not stopping until I reached room 18. Silently, I slipped the letter underneath the door before going to join my teammates in the courtyard.

* * *

I was in charge of the map. I studied it over again as I led us out of the cavern and to the surface of a snow biome. Good thing MT thought ahead and made everyone leather jackets. Since MT already knew this part of the biome, we took a few moments to look over the map and debated about which path was the best to take. Once we had a set path, we walked through the lightly coated snow ground, making small crunching noises with each step.

We didn't see much during our travel through the snow biome. We saw a couple sheep and cows, moving around aimlessly, but otherwise, nothing exciting. Which was good because no excitement meant no danger. It must have been around ten o' clock that we were deposited from the snow biome into a plains biome. This was a nice change, as we could now shed our coats and warm ourselves in the warmth of direct sunlight.

At around noon, we found a nice flat area to rest for a bit and eat. MT pulled a miniature chest out of his pack and threw it on the ground, expanding it to its normal size. He pulled out a few wooden plank blocks and a crafting table. I did the same with a chest I had stored in my pack, taking out a furnace and coal to warm some of the food. In no time flat MT had made a table out of wooden fence posts and wooden slabs. The chairs we used were just wool blocks placed at certain intervals at the table. Simple, and comfy. The meal was good, but not as good as it would have been had the ingredients been fresh and not pre-cooked. My mother taught me cooking and every time I made a meal, I tried to look for things that could be improved. Unfortunately, in minecraft, there were no spices for me to use on meats and vegetables, so I couldn't really improve a lot on my cooking here. It was a little aggravating, to be honest, but hey, what are you gonna do?

After the meal, we started back on our journey. I was in the lead of our little procession, holding the map as we walked, checking it every so often to make sure we were going the right way. The hardest part was sticking to a clear path. As, you can probably imagine, minecraft has no real recognizable landmarks, or very few. And right now, we were in a very flat plains biome with _absolutely_ no landmarks. Not even a big hill to help me. I just had to hope we were traveling in a straight line, or at least very close to it. I'd hate to get lost.

It was very relieving when after another hour or traveling, we came upon the swamp biome that was on the map after the plains biome. I almost jumped for joy and kissed the ground, except that it was probably close to mud more than dirt. How fitting that Rot's castle would be in a swamp biome. The small was just about right. Marshy waters mixed with mud and sand was a very pleasant smell indeed. There was a big bulge on the map, which I assumed was our destination, so I led on.

We smelled the castle before we even got close. The marshy smell of the swamp mixed with decayed flesh made for a putrid combination. When we reached the castle, it looked like it was about to crumble. The whole castle was made from mossy cobblestone and mossy stone bricks, except a lot of the mossy stone bricks were cracked and the mossy cobblestone looked like it would break with one good swing from a stone pickax. If this world didn't have minecraft logic attached to it, then I probably wouldn't have entered. I think my team had similar feelings, judging by the looks on their faces.

A drawbridge made from cobblestone led to a gate made from iron bars. It was left wide open, but it didn't look very inviting. I told my team we should leave our things outside apart from our weapons and essentials. MT found a tree with vines out of reach from mobs, so I bent down and he jumped from my back to grab the vine and climb up. We threw him the packs and he did something pretty smart. He took some shears out of his pack and sheared a leaf block off that was above the wooden section of the tree. He removed the first block of wood, placed the packs inside, then covered it up with the leaf block. Afterwards, he jumped down and rejoined us on the ground.

"Smooth thinking." I said.

"Thanks." He replied.

"So, what's the plan?" Sully asked.

It was a good question, because I didn't really have one. We couldn't just waltz in there and request an audience with the king. There's no doubt that the castle would infested with zombies who would be more than happy to take a bite out of us. I doubt the human mobs, if there were any, would be any more charitable. I was about to say no, when an idea surfaced.

"Ethan, did you happen to make any invisibility potions?" I asked.

"I made nine and they all have extended time on them, so we have eight minutes on each." He said.

"Alright, then here's the plan. We all take one, keeping us invisible until we reach the throne room of the castle. When we arrive there, the four of you take the other four while I talk with the king. If it goes well, like I pray it does, then we won't have anything to worry about. If not, and the king decides to call his zombies out, we're going to have to fight our way out, but since all four of you are invisible, they'll target me and not you four. May not be the best plan, but it's all I can come up with at the moment. The skeleton king also gave me a map for inside the castle, so it shouldn't take us more than eight minutes to get to the throne room." I paused for a second. "Also, and this is very important, if something does go wrong and I'm captured, I want you guys to leave me. As skillful as you all are, I don't think you'll be able to rescue me from a zombie infested castle without help. Everyone clear? Any questions?" Nobody said a word. "Ok, then let's do it."

Ethan took out five potions and we all drank. Interestingly enough, we could all see each other when we were invisible. At least that would make things much easier if we had to fight our way out. Even though I couldn't see them, they would see each other. I led the way through the drawbridge and on to the throne room.

* * *

The smell was even worse when we got inside the castle, but when we made it to the throne room, it was almost overpowering! And with good reason too. The throne room was completely made from stone and mossy cobblestone. The carpets were all brown and faded. There were a few patches of the colors they were meant to be, but the carpet was mostly brown and faded. The throne room was bare except for the throne itself and the king sitting on the throne. The throne was nothing special, just stone bricks with some red cushion, the only carpet that wasn't faded. The king sitting on the throne, however, looked worse than the throne.

The king of zombies was no more than that, a zombie. A fifty foot zombie with rotting clothes, big black eyes, sickly green skin, and smelled worse than the whole castle combined with the swamp. He sat on his throne and seemed to be thinking something over. He wore a crown made, to my dismay, from bones and rotten flesh, from zombies or from animals, I had no idea. I looked at my watch and realized I only had ten seconds left until the potion wore off, so I motioned for the others to drink their potions. I gave the map of the castle to MT and we exchanged a silent agreement. I turned to face the zombie king as the last seconds of my potion's effect ticked away.

The minute I was visible, the zombie king jerked his head towards me. He looked surprised for all of a second, before his look turned to one of anger and hate. "A human has sneaked into my domain" He said in a raspy, but booming voice, "Does the human have a death wish?" He asked.

I gathered my courage before speaking. "No, your majesty" I said with a small bow, "I came here wishing to escape death." A flicker of confusion crossed his face, giving me hope that he would at least hear me out. "My name is Zyeke Daniels. I have participated in the monster games with your son, prince Rot. In one of the challenges, he bit me on my arm and infected me with his poison. I was able to fight it off, but now it had continued to spread once more, though slow, it still threatens my life. I do not wish to die, so I came here."

The zombie king let out a loud laugh. "And you hoped to receive help from me? The father of the son that you eliminated from the monster games? Give me on good reason that I should not just kill you now."

Upon those words, a horde of zombies burst through the rotting doors of the throne room and surrounded me and my friends. I could feel then tense up, ready for a battle. This wasn't going well, and I was afraid that we may have to fight though this horde.

"I do not wish to fight you, your majesty…" I started.

"Oh, but that is not my wish. I don't know if anyone very told you, but I have little tolerance for human pests! Kill him!" The king shouted.

I pulled out my staff and readied myself for the coming onslaught of the horde. I already knew there were too many. It wouldn't have been too bad if it were just me. I was already a dead man. But I had dragged my teammates into this. Thoughts of things I could have done better to keep them out of this situation flashed through my mind while I waited for the eventual charge of the horde, as well as my inevitable death.

"Stop!" I heard a loud voice exclaim.

I looked up with surprise, but could not find the source of the voice. The zombie horde parted near the back of the horde. I was surprised to see Rot coming from the path the zombies had created. "Stop this father. I will not allow you to kill this human." He said.

To say I was shocked was an understatement. Hearing this from the man who hated me when he first laid his eyes on me was both unnerving and relieving.

The zombie king looked at his son with a look of amusement. "And why not? Is this not the same person you despised? The same person who humiliated you in front of all the mobs in the coliseum? And you wish to grant him mercy?"

Rot glanced over at me. His face was as set as stone and I couldn't guess what he was feeling or thinking. "Your right father, this human humiliated me, embarrassed me in front of every mob and human mob, and I don't like him. However, he did beat me in a fight by himself with no deceptions, and for that, he earns my respect." He said. "I demand that you give him a chance to earn the cure father!"

I sneaked a glance at my watch. Only two minutes left until the potions wear off for my friends. I had to think fast. The path the zombies had made was still apparent, so I put one hand behind my back made relayed a message in sign language. _Go. I'll be fine. Wait for me back at the castle. _I ended it by pointing to the throne room door. I don't know if any of them knew sign language, but the point hopefully got the point across. I wouldn't really know until after two minutes, but I hope they got the message.

The zombie king put a green hand up to his chin thoughtfully. Then, a malicious grin spread across his face. "Very well. I shall. He will battle against Sharen at first light in the human world. Zombies, please escort Zyeke to the dungeons. If any of you even think of attacking him, I promise that I will make any of your eternal lives here as miserable as I can." He boomed.

I looked at Rot and he gave me a hard look. "Don't think that this makes us friends, Zyeke. I assure you, that is far from the truth. You spared me from death at the arena, I am doing the same, or at least for another day." He said with a smirk. "Go and rest, you're going to need it."

* * *

Rest? Right. I was surrounded by zombie guards outside my cell and the only thing for a bed was a very hard stone slab that jutted out from a wall. At least my nose had become accustom to the smell of the place and I didn't have to deal with anymore. The cell was grimy and caked with dirt. I was grateful that minecraft didn't have bugs or rats because this cell would have been the perfect home. Only the torches from outside provided any light. I didn't have anything to do, so I just lay on the stone slabs and closed my eyes, not sleeping, just day dreaming really. Drifting between sleep and consciousness, but never reaching either one.

A loud noise caused me to open my eyes. I looked at my watch to see it was close to six thirty. A zombie human mob came through, carrying a tray with bread and water. Not the best food in the world, but I had to admit that I was hungry. It was a girl. She had dark black hair, deathly pale skin, green eyes, and was dressed in rags that were clearly in need of a washing, but she didn't look like she minded. Maybe she was a servant of the castle? A zombie opened the cell and let her in.

I sat up on my slab then decided to stand. I felt stiff, so I cracked my back, shoulders, and toes. She looked at me funny before handing me the tray. I took it from her.

"Thank you." I said as I sat down and tore a tiny piece of bread off and popped it in my mouth. It tasted stale.

She seemed a little surprised at my manners. I wondered how servants were treated in this castle. Judging from what I had seen, I would guess not the best. She was still standing in the same spot where she handed me the tray, hands behind her back, an obedient look on her face. She look so serious and… maybe a little scared?

I scooted over on my slab "Would you like to sit down?" I asked. Again, she looked shocked that I would suggest such a thing, but she did come and sit down. I broke the loaf of bread in half. "Hungry?" I asked while offering her half the bread. She smiled, it was a pleasant smile.

"I'm afraid that I don't really eat bread, but I appreciate your kind offer." She said softly. She must not have been used to talking with the people she served.

"What's your name?" I asked as I took another bite of bread.

"My name is Daniela."

"Nice to meet you Daniela, my name is Zyeke." I said, offering my hand. She took it hesitantly and shook it.

"You seem nervous. Why is that?" I asked.

"I'm sorry. It's just that…no one that I served before has been so kind. I suppose I'm just not used to it. It's always been 'Daniela I need you to…' and you fill in the blank. Sometimes the days are bad for the people I serve and they tend to take their anger out on us servants. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be troubling you with my problems." She said.

I felt terribly sad for this poor girl. She was only about my age from what I could tell. Who knows how long she had been putting up with this life? "No, don't apologize. It must be a rough life. I wish I could do something to help, though I don't think I'm in a much better position." I said with a chuckle.

She led out a small laugh, which made me feel a little better. We were silent for a few seconds and I ate some more of the bread. I drank a bit of water before talking again.

"Daniela, do you mind if I ask you about something?" I asked.

"Of course, although I can't promise that I have the answer." She said.

"What can you tell me about Sharen?"

Her face went paler if that was even possible. "She…is the king's daughter. She is a year younger than Rot. She would have gone to the monster games if it wasn't for the fact that there can only be one participant per mob. Rot was chosen instead by the king to go this year. She wasn't very happy about it. I was her servant that day." She paused before going on. "She is a good fighter, one of the best in our castle. Maybe even better than Rot, not that he would ever admit that. She is also very pretty. All of the male zombie human mobs try to impress her daily, but she pays them no heed. I wish that someone would do the same for me one day." She finished.

I had finished my bread and water while I listened to her and now I felt even sadder for this girl, Daniela. I decided that I had to do something for her. I couldn't get her out of this life she was in, but maybe I could make it a bit better at least for tonight. I took out my MP3 player from my pocket. She started at it with a confused face. I smiled and played a slow song. I turned the volume up to max and unplugged the headphones. It wasn't as loud as when I danced with Cupa, but it was at a decent volume.

I got up and extended my hand out to her. She hesitated. "Um, I don't…really know how to dance." She said.

"That's ok, we can just do something simple." I said as I grabbed her hand gently and pulled her off the slab.

So, I taught her a simple slow dance that many of my classmates in high school did when they really didn't know how to dance. I put her hands around my neck and I put mine on her hips and we just made small circles around the cell. She seemed almost frightened at first and tense, but as the song progressed, she relaxed and placed her head on my chest as we danced. I felt my shirt dampen a little. She was crying. They weren't tears of sadness though, they were tears of joy, or at least I hoped so.

Songs cycled through on my MP3 player and we had just finished with the third one when I heard a door open at the other end of the hallway. Daniela broke off quickly and grabbed the empty tray from the stone slab. Another girl appeared in front of the cell. She was the same sort of pale as Daniela, but she had light green hair and she was wearing a dress that was a mixture of dark blue and green. Her eyes were a strange yellow and she looked like someone who didn't belong in the dungeons.

"Daniela, what are you still doing in the dungeons?" She asked. Her voice was sweet, but Daniela looked like she was going to be sick.

"I'm sorry Lady Sharen, I…" She started.

"It's my fault. She was instructed to keep watch over me and I was a slow eater. I'm sorry if I have kept her from any of her duties." I said quickly.

"What is that playing and why?" She asked, gesturing to my MP3 player.

"It's something from my world that plays music. And why? I just wanted to listen to something soothing while I ate." I said.

She was silent for a second. "You are dismissed Daniela." She said with a nod.

She hurried out of the dungeons.

Sharen turned her attention back to me. "Come with me." She said as she turned and started walking away. One of the zombie guards gestured for me to follow her with a growl. Not seeing another option, I did as I was told.

* * *

After going through various hallways and going through so many doors that I couldn't even begin to figure out my way back if I wanted to. A zombie was always close behind me with a sword drawn and ready to use if I tried anything. I don't really know what he expected me to try, but I didn't question it, I just followed Sharen to wherever she was leading me.

We arrived at a door that led to a spiral staircase. This must be one of the castle towers. She started walking up and I followed. It didn't take very long to reach the top, which led to another wooden door. When she opened it, I saw that it was a bedroom, probably hers. Now, I didn't want to jump to conclusions, but I don't think I wanted to go in there. I backed up, but came up right against the point of the zombie's sword behind me. I debated taking him out and booking it out of there, but quickly thought better of it. I had no idea how to get out of the castle and I'd likely be surrounded at some point and either taken back to the dungeons or killed. Neither sounded appealing. So, with a quick breath, I walked into the bedroom.

**Well, that's it for Chapter 18. I hope you all enjoyed and be sure to follow and favorite if you haven't already. I appreciate all the support you all have given me thus far and I hope continue to read all you guys' reviews. Thank you for all your support and I hope you all had a great Christmas. And if I don't update a new chapter by the 31****st****, then Happy New Year everyone! Until next time.**


	19. Fight for a Cure

Chapter 19

It was clear the minute I walked in that this room was meant for royalty. The floor was completely carpeted, intricately designed patterns made on the floor. Paintings covered the walls; chests that appeared to be painted over in different colors with dyes were placed around the room. The bed looked luxurious, decorated with a variety of pillows and sheets that invited you to lie down and rest. There were a few small tables and chairs of oak wood for a small company of people to sit down and eat and there was another oak door which I guessed might lead to a closet area of sorts. I didn't know for sure though. Regardless, the room was pretty fancy.

Sharen disappeared through the other door, leaving me alone. I wondered why she brought me here, hoping that the possible scenarios going through my mind were all wrong. I sat down at one of the tables. I still had my staff with me, for what little comfort it was, but an attack on the king's daughter would not be optimal. If she tried something on me, I'd pretty much be either at her mercy, or the castle zombies' mercy. I let out a sigh and stopped thinking about what could happen and focused on the present. So, I watch the door, waiting for Sharen to reappear.

When she did come out, she had changed into a black nightgown. It did look good on her, bringing out her pale skin and yellow eyes. She came and sat in the chair across from me, still not saying a word. She stared at me for many long seconds, maybe sizing me up? I didn't say a word either, I just returned her stare. We stayed like that for probably close to half a minute before she chuckled.

"Well, you are an interesting human, aren't you?" She said.

I was a little confused. "I'm sorry, what?"

"The fact that you came to the castle alone to seek help from one of the most feared kings to human mobs is enough to show that you have courage. You return my stare, whereas most would not, and you show kindness to others who are beneath you, such as dear Daniela. You have bested Rot in a fair fight, not an easy task, yet you spared him his life. A gentle warrior. Such a rare thing."

I wasn't really surprised that she knew about the dance. She didn't seem very convinced with my lie. "Daniela won't be harmed, will she? She didn't do anything wrong."

She laughed at this. "Why do you worry about that? You only just met her."

"Because, she has a hard enough life as it is. Maybe I can't change that, but maybe I could have made it a little better, even if it was for one night. I believe that being kind to others will cause others to be kind to you. But, she shouldn't be punished if what happened was not allowed in your customs. If there is punishment to be given, it should be given to me. I will take it without complaint, but I do not regret what I did, nor do I think it was the wrong thing to do." I said with confidence.

"You've spoken well and wisely, but that is not what I called you here for. And don't worry, Daniela is not in any danger. If anything, she was dancing with a prisoner. There is no crime in that."

"Then what did you call me here for?" I asked.

She rose from her chair and walked over to me. I stood up as well. I noticed she was pretty close to the same height as me.

"As you may know from Daniela, I have been the most sociable person when it comes to men. Many have tried to approach me and woo me with gifts and sweet words, but I knew of their real intentions, so I ignored them all thus far. Because of this my father has had much difficulty with finding me a suitor." She backed away a few steps. "You, on the other hand, have done nothing to entice me, yet you peaked my interests with what you have done. I know a lot about you thanks to Rot. Your encounter with Skelly and Andr, how you forgave Lone even after being betrayed by her, and how you treat your teammates and friends."

"Why was…" I started, but Sharen interrupted.

"Rot was keeping a close eye on you, though he hasn't shared why. My guess was that he was hoping to find an easy way to finish you off quicker, or maybe find a way to make you quit the games. It matters not. Regardless, getting to the point, you have all the qualities that I require in a suitor. I do not wish to fight you tomorrow, but I will if I must. I do, however, offer you a proposition. Forget the games, I can convince my father to give you the cure that you seek, but once you are cured, stay at this castle with me. If you prove yourself to be the man I seek as a husband, then we shall wed. If not, you are free to go anywhere you please. But, as for right now, I need a decision. If you choose to stay, I offer you rest and comfort here for tonight. If you decide against it, there are two armed zombie guards ready to take you back to the dungeon." She walked over to her bed and sat on it. "Please, choose."

My head was spinning. Receiving all this information coupled with an ultimatum was proving to be a little difficult to digest. I stood there for a good minute or so before I burst out laughing. Sharen looked a little surprised at my sudden outburst.

"What is so funny?" She asked.

I forced myself to calm down so I could answer her. "I'm sorry Lady Sharen, but I have to decline your offer." A frown seeped across her face. "Before you get angry with me, let me explain why first. I can't quit the games because if I do, I forfeit my only chance of getting back to my world and seeing my family again. The second reason is probably the more important one. You speak of marriage like it is something that must fit together like a puzzle, but that is not how love works. No, love is like a rollercoaster, with many sharp twists and turns. And if you do have feelings for me, I'm afraid that I cannot return them. I have someone else that is precious to me. So, I am sorry Lady Sharen, but I cannot accept." I watched as her expression turned to that of stone, much like Rot's before. "I will go back to the dungeons then. I truly apologize if I offended you in any way, but this is the way it must be."

And with that, I turned to leave.

"Zyeke." She called.

I turned to face her.

"Just know that I will not go easy on you at all tomorrow. Be prepared for the most challenging battle of your life. It will be one of mortal combat." She said.

I nodded. "Then I will be ready. Good night Lady Sharen."

"Good night Zyeke."

I walked out of her room and was escorted back to the dungeons to catch what little sleep I could get.

* * *

I was aroused, rather rudely, by a zombie guard when morning arrived, not that I could tell since there weren't any windows. He gestured with his sword for me to follow. He led me out of the dungeon area and through another set of hallways. The problem with the hallways of the castle was that they all looked the same, making it impossible to discern where you were. This wasn't apparent with the zombies though, or anyone that lived in this castle.

After a few minutes, we entered a hallway that led outside. Light poured from the empty arch and cheers could be heard from outside. I was led outside into a crude coliseum-like arena. It was much smaller than the one we fought at in the games though, maybe half the size. The stands were filled with zombies and human mob zombies, all screaming or growling, waiting for the fight to begin.

The zombie led me through the archway and into the coliseum. A hidden gate slammed shut behind me, cutting off any means of escape. The crowd changed their tone once I entered. Boos and angry growls coursed through the crowd. A few rotten carrots and potatoes were thrown, but I avoided them with ease. Another Iron gate was at the opposite end of the coliseum and it slowly rose. The crowd went wild as Sharen stepped out from the darkness and into the bright sunlight of the arena. Sharen's battle attire was simple, yet deadly. She wore a black tanktop that stopped before reaching her belly button, short blacks shorts with a belt attached, and she was barefoot. Abow and quiver hung from her back, a sword at her side, a few potions and knives were attached to her belt. She looked like a one woman army. Suddenly, I was feeling very underequipped.

Rot appeared in a box in the middle of the stands, presumably reserved for nobles and royalty. A few other human mobs were present, but not very many. Rot motioned for the crowd to be silent with a wave of his hand. When the stands quieted, he spoke. It sounded like a rehearsed speech.

"Good morning residents of the zombie kingdom. Today, we are gathered here to witness a battle between two great warriors. Zyeke Daniels, who is fighting for a cure to my poison that flow within him. Fighting for my father, Lady Sharen, will be hs opponent. This battle will be fought as mortal combat. Both of you have ten seconds to prepare until the signal is given. Do either of you wish to resign from the battle?"

"Last chance to reconsider my offer Zyeke."Sharen said.

"I'm afraid you know my answer to that Lady Sharen." I said.

Rot nodded. 'Then prepare for battle. Your ten seconds begins now."

I was as ready as I ever was going to be. I did a quick bow to Lady Sharen, which she returned to my surprise. I guess she knew more about honor and discipline than her brother. I respected her for that. Ten seconds ticked by and there was a loud zombie growl that was no doubt the signal to begin the fight.

Sharen moved instinctively at the sound of the growl, flinging a knife aimed for my head. It grazed my cheek as I moved and dug itself into the stone wall of the coliseum. I didn't have any time to think about the narrow miss because I saw her hand flick back to her belt. I dove to my left on instinct and avoided a potion that shattered against the wall in the place where I had been standing. I glanced up when coming out of roll to see her readying her bow.

I made a split decision to rush her. I jumped out of my roll and sprinted towards her. She had the arrow pulled taut and fired. I twisted my body to avoid it plunging into my stomach. She didn't have time to ready another one. I jumped up for a flying side kick only to have it blocked. Coming down, I ducked to avoid a punch and went for a sweep at her legs. She jumped up as I swung my leg and I saw one of her legs lift for kick. I raised both hands in an X to catch her foot as it came down. It connected and I felt my right hand throb in pain. Ignoring it, I came up from my crouch and pushed her leg back towards her.

She stumbled the slightest bit, leaving me room to perform a tornado kick to the left side of her face. She spun around in midair once before hitting the ground. She dropped her bow. I was about to go in to pin her, but instead bent backwards to avoid another knife throw. It missed by inches. I backed away a little bit just in case she decided to throw something else. She rose to her feet and threw the quiver across the arena. She pulled out her sword and ran towards my, preparing her sword for an upward slice.

I quickly pulled out my staff to block. I regretted it. Her sword flashed purple upon contact and I flew backwards. The sword was enchanted with knockback. I skid on the dirt floor, Sharen easily keeping up with me. I rolled out of the way to avoid what would have been a fatal stab intended for my stomach. I blocked two kicks while getting to my feet, then another swing from her sword. If I blocked it, I would end up on the ground again, vulnerable another fatal attack. I jumped to the side, but it seemed that Sharen was expecting that. She reached to her belt and smashed a potion bottle against my stomach.

Instantly, I felt a sharp pain as if I'd been stabbed through the stomach by a scalding hot knife. I jumped back with a yelp of pain, clutching my stomach. The worst of the pain subsided quickly. But my stomach still sent a jolt of pain through my body every time I tensed up. She hit must have hit me with a potion of harming. Blood started trickling from wounds the glass shards manage to inflict when she smashed the bottle.

She was out of potions now, so at least I wouldn't have to worry about another one crippling me, but she wasn't letting up and I was losing strength. I was running out of options and my blocks were coming slower. My inner pain from my stomach was really starting to take its toll on my movements. I received two cuts from her sword on my arm and shoulder from failed attempts to dodge. I had no choice. Even though I was afraid of doing it, I had to delve into that darker side of my being if I was going to win. With one last attempt to get her away from me, I lashed out with a pendulum side kick. I pushed her away from me and off balance for the smallest of seconds. In those seconds, I reached deep inside and felt the pain from my stomach lessen. The wounds on my body numbed and I felt new power flow through my muscles and my mind took on a more sinister mood.

When Sharen rushed at me again, I dodged her attack with more agility than she was expecting. This left me the opening I needed. I twisted my staff to a strike to her right rib. She grunted in pain and I smiled. I followed it up with an elbow jab to her stomach and twisted my other fist into a backhand. She let out a small yelp and tried to send a punch to my face. I knocked it away and broke my staff in two. I sent a jab to her chest, receiving the desired effect of her bending down. With the other piece, I moved my hand in an upward thrust and caught her chin with the second staff piece. She flipped up into the air. I reconnected my staff, jumped, and brought it straight down onto her stomach. She slammed into the ground with a loud thud, leaving an indentation in the dirt.

Still in my crazed state, I readied my staff for another strike, but this one aimed at her head. I brought the staff up and she looked at me with real fear showing in her eyes. That was what stopped me and snapped me out of my enraged phase. My hands suddenly felt wobbly and I felt sick, realizing to the full extent what I had done. I dropped the staff and fell to my knees. All the pain was starting to come back, but that is not why I felt weak. I felt like a monster, I had been ready to intentionally kill someone. She was done and I knew that, but I had been prepared to end her life anyway.

A plethora of zombie guards rushed onto the field and escorted me away from Sharen. I didn't struggle or put up any fight in the least. I felt drained and more afraid than I've ever been. I almost committed murder.

* * *

I was led by the zombie guards to the servant's quarters. They practically shoved me in and closed the door shut behind me. The room was nothing more than a stone shell filled with beds and a few tables and chests. I must have given all the servants a start. The servants were mostly girls and there was only one other guy in the whole room. I didn't feel like talking much, so I just scooted over to a corner in the room and put my head on my knees.

I nearly killed someone in cold blood. The thought seemed hard to comprehend, but I had been ready to do it. Was it going to be like that every time I changed? What if I couldn't snap out of it in time? Was I turning into a monster? Was Rot's poison to blame? Even as I thought of it, I knew it wasn't true. It had been me, nothing had influenced me other than my need to survive. But at what costs? How long until I wouldn't be able to stop?

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I lifted my head to see Daniela with a healing potion and a rag. I had almost completely forgotten that she was a servant in this castle.

"I just wanted to warn you before I started." Daniela said.

I shook my head. "No healing potion. I don't want treatment" I said softly.

"But…" She started.

"No Daniela. I don't want it. I almost killed Sharen. Almost killed her in cold blood, while she was laying helpless on the ground. I…don't want instant healing. I need to feel every ache, every cut, every wound to remind me of what almost happened. I need it as a reminder. The scars left by them will serve as thus. I'm sorry."

"At least let me rinse them off. Seeing you bleed is not helping any of us. We are still part zombie and should someone not be able to resist his or her...instinct, you'll…die." She took my face in her hands. "Please Zyeke."

She looked like she was about to start crying. I didn't want that. I nodded and she went to fetch a bucket of water When she came back, she dunked the rag into the bucket and started cleaning my wounds. Neither of us said a word as she went on wiping blood from my clothes and body. I thanked her when she finished. She nodded and walked off the empty the bucket. She came back once she had finished.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked.

"No. I'm sorry." I said.

We were both silent for a moment.

"How did you get a potion of healing? Do they give them out to all the servants?" I asked.

"No, we steal them whenever we can just in case one of the other servants is beaten by his or her master that day. It doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while a servant is brought back hurt. After the first time this happened, we all vowed that if we could get our hands on a potion of healing at any time, we would." She said.

"I'm sorry." I said and I really was. I hated that the servants were treated this way.

She shrugged. "It's the life we live."

I made a vow of my own. I would come back to help these servants. It was a promise.

I heard Rot's voice outside and Daniela quickly joined the other servants who had concerned themselves with something else all of a sudden. When the door opened, I stood up from my corner, wincing a bit as I did. Rot came in with a glass bottle in his hand filled with a green liquid. He tossed it at me and I caught it with both hands, making sure not to drop it.

"There's your cure. Unfortunately it cannot reverse the effects of what has already been done, but it will stop my poison. You must drink it now. If anyone got their hands on it, it could deal a major blow to our kingdom, so you must drink it now." Rot said. His voice sounded edgy, as if trying to conceal anger.

I uncorked the bottle. It smelled awful, but I plugged my nose and drank. Man it tasted worse than sewer sludge mixed with dirty gym socks! Suddenly, I felt a burning sensation in my left arm, they only thing I had felt for days with that arm. It intensified quickly and it felt as if my arm was plunged into lava and held down until there was nothing left. I clutched my arm and let out more than a few pained yelps. I felt tears flowing from my eyes until the pain started to numb. In the course of three minutes, I couldn't feel anything in my arm anymore.

I looked back up at Rot to see a small smile escape his lips. "Go now. My father is allowing you to leave this castle in one piece. You'd better leave before he changes his mind."

"What about Sharen? Is she alright?" I asked.

I saw Rot's face twist in anger. "What right do you have to ask about her health? Are you trying to insult our family?"

"Da**it Rot, I just want to know if she's ok!" I shouted at him

He looked surprised for a second before his face returned to it's usual unemotional state. "She is recovering and should be back to normal by tomorrow." He said.

Relief flooded my mind. "Good." I said. "I'm sorry Rot. For what little it will mean to you, I did not mean to hurt your sister that badly, nor did I mean to at the arena with you. I am truly sorry for what I've done and I hope one day you'll forgive me."

It was the last thing I said before walking out of the servant's quarters. A zombie guard led me back to the entrance of the castle. It gave me back my map and sent me on my way. I walked up to the tree that we stored our packs in before coming to the castle. I was more than happy to find that four out of five were gone. I grabbed my pack and started the long walk back to the skeleton king's castle.

**That's it for chapter 19 guys. I hope you all enjoyed and as always, don't forget to leave a review and follow and favorite if you haven't already. I wish everyone a Happy New Year and can't wait to continue the story next year. Until next time.**


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